LIBRARY 

nil-: 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

i    c  >  i  ^ 

Mrs.  SARAH  P.  WALSWORTH. 

Received  October,  1894. 
t/lcce&sions  No. 


fa-  #- 


)? 


f 

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J* 


SEED-TRUTHS; 


OB, 


BIBLE  VIEWS  OF  MIND,  MORALS, 
AND  RELIGION. 


BY 

PHARCELLUS  CHURCH,  D.D., 

H 

AUTHOR  or  'PHILOSOPHY  OF  BENEVOLENCE;'  '  RELIGIOUS  DISSENSIONS  :  THEIR 

AND   CURE,   A  PRIZE   KSSAT;'    'ANTIOCH;    OR,  THE  INCREASE  OF  MORAL 
POWER  IN  THE  CHURCH,'  ETC.   ETC. 


Search  the  Scriptures.— JOHN  v.  39. 

Comparing  spiritual  things  with  spiritual.—*  COR.  II.  13, 


NEW 

SHELDON  &  CO.,  No.  677  BKOADWAY 

AND  214  &  216  MERCER  STREET, 

UNDER  GRAND  CENTRAL  HOTEL, 

1871. 


PREFACE. 


EADHTG  the  Bible  in  course,  or  by  verse  and 
XX  chapter,  fails  in  many  cases  to  bring  to  light 
the  truths  which  underlie  all  its-  documents,  and  which 
are  the  same  to  us  as  to  any  previous  generation. 
Human  nature  and  its  relations,  in  their  essential  prin- 
ciples, are  a  unit  in  all  ages.  But  we  are  prone  to 
think  of  what  we  read  as  pertaining  to  another  sphere, 
or  quite  remote  from  the  order  of  our  present  experi- 
ences. A  more  interior  view  of  the  subject  dissipates 
this  illusion,  and  makes  the  Bible,  more  than  any  other 
book,  a  painting  of  what  we  now  see  and  experience. 

There  may  be  unfitness  of  mind  for  this  interior 
view,  just  as  there  may  be  for  enjoying  the  poets ;  and 
we  may  turn  away  from  Scripture,  as  having  nothing 
to  interest  us,  as  many  readers  do  from  Shakspeare 
and  Milton.  But  this  is  not  all  The  reading  is  too 
fragmentary  to  reach  foundation-truths.  Can  we  know 
what  a  tree  is  as  a  whole,  by  seeing  its  leaves  and 
its  chips  ?  Commentaries  are  too  ponderous,  sermons 
too  excursive,  and  creeds  too  summary,  great  as  their 
value  is,  to  meet  this  exact  demand.  Questions  are 
ever  recurring  to  inquisitive  readers,  which  they  find 
it  difficult  to  answer.  Why  a  revelation  in  such  form  ? 


iv  Preface. 

Why  such  a  record  of  the  first  man,  and  his  trifling 
aberration  ?  Why  doom  his  posterity  for  a  sin  in 
which  they  had  no  participation  ?  Why  such  a  life  as 
that  of  Abraham,  and  such  a  law  as  that  of  Moses  ? 
Why  such  a  murderous  raid  on  the  Canaanites  ?  Why 
such  lists  of  unmeaning  names  ?  On  account  of  such 
questionings,  the  Catholics  deem  the  Bible  an  unsafe 
book  in  the  hands  of  the  people,  unless  a  priest  is 
present  to  indoctrinate  them  in  the  dogmas  of  the 
church. 

That  the  writer  has  met  all  these  questions  he  does 
not  claim,  but  only  that  he  has  developed  certain 
principles  in  which  all  those  anomalies  and  our  present 
experiences  alike  cohere ;  just  as  in  nature  there  are 
forces  binding  into  one  both  its  explained  and  unex- 
plained phenomena.  His  plan  is,  first,  to  sketch  the 
Bible  man  in  his  mental,  moral,  and  religious  charac- 
teristics ;  and  then  to  trace  him  out  in  the  states, 
transitions,  and  histories  recorded  of  him  in  Scripture ; 
and  showing,  at  the  same  time,  their  agreement  with 
what  we  are,  what  our  forefathers  have  been,  and  what 
our  posterity  is  to  be  to  the  end  of  time. 

It  is  usual,  in  our  systems  of  education,  to  detach 
the  science  of  mind,  morals,  and  natural  theology  from 
revelation,  and  treat  them  on  the  basis  of  consciousness, 
our  relations,  or  the  evidences  of  design  which  we  see 
around  us.  What  is  thus  acquired,  on  merely  human 
grounds  of  evidence,  is  preparatory  to  the  study  of  the 
Bible.  The  divinity  student,  after  being  drilled  in  the 
study  of  man  as  conducted  by  the  schools,  is  put  to 
interpreting  the  word  of  God,  as  a  Chinese  lady  is  put 
to  walking  after  her  feet  have  been  crippled  in  iron 
shoes.  His  mental  muscles  are  indurated  into  a  form, 
in  judging  of  tlie  man  of  the  Bible,  to  compel  him  to 


Preface.  v 

be  thus  and  not  otherwise ;  or  to  be  a  puppet  of  the 
schools,  rather  than  a  piece  of  God's  handiwork.  The 
young  preacher  must  have  a  strong  decoction  of  philo- 
sophy, just  a  little  tinctured  with  revelation,  and  then 
be  sent  abroad  to  give  the  mixture  to  the  sheep  and 
lambs  of  Christ's  flock 

But  can  the  philosophical  man  act  the  part  of  the 
Bible  man  ?  Is  there  anything  in  a  metaphysical 
Adam,  or  a  metaphysical  new  man  in  Christ,  to  meet 
the  descriptions  of  Moses  or  the  apostles  ?  Suppose 
the  professor,  after  shaping  human  nature  by  his  science 
of  mind,  morals,  and  theology,  were  to  say  to  his  pupils, 
'  Now  you  see  that'  a  being  so  constituted  might  eat  an 
apple  and  damn  a  world,'  would  not  the  class  laugh 
him  in  the  face  ?  There  is  no  fitness  in  the  man 
elaborated  out  of  his  material  to  act  any  such  part. 
The  idea  of  being  born  again  would  be  foreign  to  his 
nature.  '  If  MORALS  are  not  taken  up  distinctively  on 
the  principles  of  revelation,  they  had  better,  as  subjects 
of  prelection  for  young  men,  be  let  alone  altogether. 
Not  only  can  there  be  no  true  morality  without  reli- 
gion ;  but  the  teaching  of  moral  virtues  to  sinful  crea- 
tures, on  grounds  independent  of  the  mercy  revealed 
by  the  gospel,  is  an  inlet  to  antiscriptural  and  soul- 
destroying  delusions.'1  This  remark  is  as  true  of  the 
science  of  mind  as  of  morals.  No  honest  pupil  can 
compare  the  science  of  man,  as  studied  on  merely 
natural  grounds,  with  what  he  reads  of  the  race  in  the 
Bible,  without  feeling  that  there  are  grave  and  inexpli- 
cable discrepancies. 

There  must  be  something  in  human  nature  that 
philosophy  has  not  reached,  or  the  Bible  must  be  given 
up  as  a  revelation  from  God.  Many  of  those  who 

1  Christian  Ethics,  by  Dr.  Ralph  Wardlaw,  p.  378. 


vi  Preface. 

strongly  adhere  to  the  view  of  the  schools  become  infi- 
dels ;  and  others  adhere  to  revelation  on  the  principle 
of  withdrawing  it  from  the  category  of  humanity,  and 
assigning  it  to  quite  another  order  of  things.  While 
speculative  philosophy  is  a  very  unsettled  science, 
with  as  many  theories  of  it  as  there  are  powerful  minds 
to  treat  the  subject,  it  should  be  considered  that  the 
writers  of  the  Bible,  in  all  their  varied  ages  and  cir- 
cumstances, are  perfectly  agreed  in  their  views  of  man's 
nature,  relations,  history,  and  necessities.  They  keep 
to  those  practical  views  which  ensure  uniformity  among 
themselves,  and  which  must  have  a  like  effect  upon 
others  so  far  as  they  are  studied. 

The  Bible  man  stands  between  two  distinct  worlds — 
that  of  nature,  and  that  of  spirits ;  taking  impressions 
and  ideas  from  both,  though  unlike  each  other  as  spirit 
is  to  matter,  and,  heaven  or  hell  is  to  earth.  He  trims 
his  sails  to  breezes  from  the  seen  and  unseen,  from  the 
temporal  and  the  eternal.  These  opposite  influences 
act  upon  him  through  distinct  modes  of  apprehension ; 
and  it  is  for  him  to  determine  whether  the  one  or  the 
other  shall  rule  him.  This  is  a  prerogative  that  allies 
him  to  God.  It  is  the  basis  of  his  law  and  of  his 
principle  of  duty.  So  totally  distinct  and  unlike  is 
what  comes  V>  him  from  God  from  what  comes  to  him 
from  nature,  that  his  whole  character,  his  moral  status, 
and  that  of  those  born  of  him  or  trained  under  his 
influence,  are  necessarily  determined,  according  as  he 
continues  under  the  rule  of  spirit  from  God,  or  as  he 
recedes  to  the  ruling  of  flesh,  as  acted  upon  by  the 
world.  The  two  necessarily  bar  each  other  as  ruling 
powers.1  Can  we  wonder  that  man,  as  so  constituted 
and  so  situated,  should  by  one  act  detach  himself,  and 
•  1  Cor.  ii.  14  ;  Matt  xvi.  23  ;  Rom.  viiL  6-8. 


Preface.  vii 

tlrose  born  of  him,  from  innocence,  or  at  the  extra- 
ordinary means  necessary  to  his  recovery  ?  How  much 
does  it  cost  to  civilise  a  savage,  or  to  make  an  innocent 
man  of  a  voluptuary,  drunkard,  and  murderer  ? 

Plato,  a  heathen  philosopher,  came  nearer  the  Bible 
idea  of  man  than  most  others  who  have  considered  him 
merely  from  a  natural  point  of  view.  He  supposed 
the  soul  had  a  pre-existent  life,  and  that  ideas  from 
another  world  were  born  with  him.  He  therefore,  like 
the  inspired  writers,  united  two  worlds  in  man,  though 
he  mistook  the  manner  of  it.  Kant  has  a  sublime 
passage  on  the  subject,  though  he  stops  short  of  the 
Bible  idea  of  a  spiritual  and  natural  universe :  '  Two 
things  there  are  which,  the  oftener  and  the  more  sted- 
fastly  we  consider,  fill  the  mind  with  an  ever-new, 
an  ever-rising  admiration  and  reverence — the  STARRY 
HEAVENS  above,  the  MORAL  LAW  within.  Of  neither  am 
I  compelled  to  seek  out  the  reality,  as  veiled  in  dark- 
ness, or  only  to  conjecture  the  possibility,  as  beyond 
the  hemisphere  of  my  knowledge.  Both  I  contem- 
plate lying  clear  before  me,  and  connect  both  with  my 
consciousness  of  existence.  The  one  departs  from  the 
place  I  occupy  in  the  outward  world  of  sense ;  expands, 
beyond  the  bounds  of  imagination,  this  connection  of 
my  body  with  worlds,  and  systems  blending  into  sys- 
tems ;  and  protends  it  also  into  the  illimitable  times 
of  their  periodic  movement — to  its  commencement  and 
perpetuity.  The  other  departs  from  my  invisible  self, 
from  my  personality ;  and  represents  me  in  a  world 
truly  infinite  indeed,  but  whose  infinity  can  be  tracked 
out  only  by  the  intellect,  with  which  also  my  connec- 
tion, unlike  the  fortuitous  relation  I  stand  in  to  all 
worlds  of  sense,  I  am  compelled  to  recognise  as  uni- 
versal and  necessary.  In  the  former,  the  first  view  of 


viii  Preface. 

a  countless  multitude  of  worlds  annihilates,  as  it  were, 
my  importance  as  an  animal  product,  which,  after  a 
brief,  and  that  incomprehensible,  endowment  with  the 
powers  of  life,  is  compelled  to  refund  its  constituent 
matter  to  the  planet — itself  an  atom  in  the  universe — 
on  which  I  grow.  The  other,  on  the  contrary,  elevates 
my  worth  as  an  intelligence  even  without  limit ;  and 
this  through  my  personality,  in  which  the  moral  law 
reveals  a  faculty  of  life  independent  of  my  animal 
nature,  nay,  of  the  whole  material  world ; — at  least,  if 
it  be  permitted  to  infer  as  much  from  the  regulation 
of  my  being,  which  conformity  with  that  law  exacts ; 
proposing,  as  it  does,  my  moral  worth  for  the  absolute 
end  of  my  activity,  conceding  no  compromise  of  its 
imperative  to  a  necessitation  of  nature,  and  spurning 
in  its  infinity  the  conditions  and  boundaries  of  my 
transitory  life.'  * 

Thus  the  Bible  view  of  man,  as  acted  upon  by  two 
worlds,  is  not  without  a  certain  kind  of  response  from 
philosophy.  The  sense  of  amenableness  to  God  per- 
vading ordinary  minds,  however,  is  a  much  stronger 
proof  of  the  fact.  Every  one  who  honestly  consults 
his  own  heart  will  find  responses  from  the  spirit-realm 
as  unmistakeable  as  those  which  he  receives  from 
nature  through  the  senses. 

After  revolving  this  subject  for  some  time,  it  oc- 
curred to  the  author  to  collate  what  is  said  in  the 
r.ible  of  the  nature  of  man  ;  and  when  he  had  done 
so,  he  saw  clearly  that  its  histories,  its  ceremonials,  its 
morals,  its  doctrines,  its  views  of  sin  and  redemption, 
were  all  adjusted  to  certain  attributes  and  relations  of 
human  nature.  The  principles  ruling  in  the  case  are 
few  and  simple,  and  they  are  a  complete  index  to  the 
1  A»  quoted  by  Sir  W.  Hamilton,  Metaphysics,  pp.  28,  29. 


Preface.  ix 

whole  subject-matter  of  revealed  religion.  These  are 
treated  in  the  first  eleven  chapters  of  his  work. 

The  writer  gave  to  the  public  some  years  ago  a 
volume  issued  as  a  Prize  Essay  on  Christian  Union, 
in  preparing  which  he  became  convinced  that  our  sec- 
tarian divisions  begin  with  interpreting  Scripture  by 
something  out  of  Scripture  ;  and  that,  if  we  would  be 
united,  we  must  '  search '  for  its  true  sense  and  spirit 
by  '  comparing  spiritual  things  only  with  spiritual ; ' 
interpreting  the  word  by  the  word,  or  doctrine  by 
ceremony,  law  by  gospel,  the  historical  by  the  devo- 
tional, the  obscure  by  the  plain,  and  the  Old  Testament 
by  the  New,  and  vice  versa.  This  might  not  restore 
Papal  uniformity  in  the  dark  ages, — a  state  of  things 
far  worse  than  our  divisions, — but  it  would  tend  to 
abate  the  rancour  of  schism,  by  showing  each  sect  the 
wisdom  of  moderating  its  extreme  positions  by  those 
of  its  equally  zealous  and  conscientious  neighbours. 
The  writer  did  not  expect  to  attempt  a  work  on  this 
principle  of  comparing  spiritual  things  with  spiritual ; 
but,  Providence  favouring,  he  has  devoted  about  five 
years  to  the  studies  which  have  resulted  in  this  unpre- 
tending work. 

The  chief  part  of  his  labour  has  consisted  in  an 
endeavour  to  draw  his  materials  from  original  sources, 
ignoring  what  others  had  made  out  of  those  materials. 
The  reading  of  the  original  Scriptures  throughout,  and 
the  re-reading  of  parts  of  them  over  and  over  again, 
have  been  his  chief  resource.  He  desired  to  look 
beyond  translations  as  far  as  possible,  to  the  human 
or  material  '  form  of  sound  words/  or  to  the  derivation 
of  f  the  words  which  the  Holy  Ghost  teacheth.' l  He 
does  not  claim  to  be  a  critic  in  language,  but  only  to 
1 1  Cor.  ii.  13 ;  2  Tim.  i  13. 


x  Preface. 

look  beneath  the  derived  word,  which  translations  do 
little  more  than  give,  if  they  do  that,  to  the  germinal 
idea  which  its  root  was  used  to  express. 

'  The  writer  has  found  much  instruction  in  collating  all 
the  passages  in  which  important  words  occur,  to  elimi- 
nate the  stem-thought  in  each  of  them.  Ruacli,  spirit ; 
ncpJicsh,  soul;  torah,  law;  kapporeth,  atonement,  and 
many  others,  thus  collated  and  compared,  have  proved 
a  rich  placer  of  the  purest  gold.  He  finds,  in  the  use 
of  these  words,  a  discrimination  of  meaning  not  to  he 
detected  by  any  other  process.  The  '  spirit,  and  soul, 
and  body/  as  used  by  the  apostle  in  1  Thess.  v.  23,  is 
a  Hebraistic  mode  of  speaking  as  old  as  language. 

The  writer  has  also  collated  much  of  the  Bible  re- 
flected in  the  articles  of  our  most  renowned  creeds. 
This  has  enabled  him  the  better  to  judge  of  the  stand- 
point of  our  old  interpreters.  Their  work  is  of  great 
service  as  a  breakwater  to  lawless  innovations,  but  not 
as  reflecting  an  unbiassed  comparison  of  spiritual  things 
with  spiritual  They  were  too  much  affected  by  the 
controversies  of  their  several  periods  to  admit  of  this. 
And  their  definitions  have  extensively  modified  com- 
mentaries, sermons,  interpretation,  and  the  whole  range 
of  religious  thinking  and  reasoning.  Even  the  latitu- 
flin;irian  sects  have  taken  form,  as  the  water-line  of  an 
iron-bound  coast  by  its  jagged  rocks  and  granite  bluffs, 
through  the  mighty  resisting  force  of  these  old  Athana- 
sian,  Augusti nian,  and  Calvinistic  creed-makers. 

The  writer  has  not  the  vanity  to  attempt  to  improve 
upon  such  men,  but  only  to  hint,  as  the  result  of  fifty 
years'  reflection  on  the  subject,  that  orthodoxy,  to  retain 
its  hold  on  the  restless  thought  of  the  age  that  is  and 
is  to  come,  must  look  to  a  more  interior  and  untram- 
melled exam  million  of  the  word.  There  is  a  fear  of 


Preface.  xi 

relaxing  our  hold  upon  the  old  standards,  even  for  the 
Bible  itself ;  the  cry  of  heresy  may  perhaps  assail  him 
that  attempts  it ;  but  still  the  work  must  go  on,  and 
the  writer  trusts  that  his  feeble  efforts  may  prompt 
others  to  do  better.  To  indicate  a  few  points  of  differ- 
ence between  an  exterior  and  interior  examination  of 
the  sacred  text,  let  a  few  examples  suffice. 

The  exterior  view  makes  the  primeval  man  holy  in 
his  creation ;  the  interior  finds  him  innocent  and  up- 
right, and  the  candidate  for  a  virtue  and  holiness  to  be 
acquired  by  trial. 

The  exterior  ascribes  his  fall  to  an  outward  tempter ; 
the  interior  finds  in  his  doubt,  appetite,  sesthetical 
nature,  and  various  specific  impulses,  a  basis  for  temp- 
tation, apart  from  extraneous  malign  influence. 

The  exterior  makes  depravity  total ;  the  interior 
makes  it  the  extinction  of  spiritual  life,  or  life  in 
God,  but  not  of  natural  conscience  and  conservative 
qualities. 

The  exterior  confines  its  ideas  of  sin  chiefly  to  vices 
and  crimes;  the  interior  makes  it  a  nature  ruled  by 
the  flesh  and  the  world.  Everything  is  sin  under  that 
ruling. 

The  exterior  makes  law  a  series  of  specific  enact- 
ments ;  the  interior  makes  it  a  principle  of  duty,  of 
which  specific  enactments  are  an  emanation. 

The  exterior  makes  penalty  an  overt  infliction  of 
death  upon  men  and  animals  in  this  world,  and  hell- 
torments  in  the  next ;  the  interior  makes  it  that  extinc- 
tion of  spiritual  life  which  began  on  the  day  of  the  first 
sin,  to  continue  till  that  life  is  restored  by  divine  grace. 

The  exterior  view  regards  a  decree  of  election,  con- 
signing a  portion  of  mankind  to  eternal  life,  as  the  first 
act  in  redemption  ;  the  interior  view  refers  specific 


xii     .  Preface. 

manifestations  of  grace,  as  with  believers  in  Borne  and 
Ephesus,  to  God's  gracious  working  from  the  beginning 
of  time,  as  recorded  in  the  Old  Testament.  As  Dr. 
Wardlaw  says,  the  way  is,  '  not  to  begin  with  the  pur- 
pose, and  reason  forward  to  the  event,  but  to  begin 
with  the  event,  and  reason  backward  to  the  purpose.' * 
This  is  the  order  in  which  the  apostles  uniformly  state 
the  case. 

To  the  exterior,  the  sacrifice  of  Christ  upon  the  cross 
is  a  price  paid  to  law  and  justice  ;  to  the  interior,  it  is 
power  to  reproduce  itself  in  every  believer. 

To  the  one,  the  atonement  is  an  abstraction  of 
government ;  to  the  other,  it  is  bruising  the  serpent's 
head,  or  killing  the  nature  which  is  the  head  of  his 
power  over  man,  in  order  to  resurrection  to  a  new  and 
heavenly  life. 

To  the  one,  the  crucifixion  was  a  spectacular  scene 
like  a  public  execution,  to  exhibit  to  the  universe  the 
vengeance  of  law  ;  to  the  other,  it  is  God  on  the  mercy- 
seat  restoring  union  between  Himself  and  His  mourn- 
ing people  at  the  door  of  the  sanctuary,  or  '  that 
repentance  and  remission  of  sins  should  be  preached 
in  His  name  among  all  nations.'  * 

To  the  one,  regeneration  is  a  change  of  affections 
and  conduct ;  to  the  other,  it  is  God's  restored  domi- 
nion in  the  soul,  of  which  the  changed  affections  and 
conduct  are  a  consequence.  It  is  '  seeing '  and  '  enter- 
ing the  kingdom  of  God.'  * 

To  the  one,  the  blood  of  Christ  is  a  wrath -appeaser ; 
to  the  other,  it  is  spiritual  life  purifying  the  heart 
through  faith,  and  pervading  man's  whole  outward  life. 
'  He  that  eateth  me  shall  live  by  me ; '  and  all  things 
;ti.  purified  by  blood. 

1  Christian  Ethic*,  p.  158.        «  Luke  xxiv.  47.        •  John  iii.  3-6. 


Preface.  xiii 

To  the  one,  the  church  is  an  outward  organization ; 
to  the  other,  it  is  a  company  of  believers,  who  '  by  one 
spirit  are  baptized  into  one  body.' * 

The  author  states  these  as  a  few  of  the  many  points 
on  which  the  views  of  thousands  will  undergo  essential 
modifications  as  they  advance  towards  a  more  interior 
and  untrammelled  view  of  the  word  of  God. 

He  gives  his  authorities  at  the  bottom  of  each  page, 
which  the  reader  can  refer  to  or  not  as  he  pleases. 
The  body  of  the  work  is  complete  without  them.  The 
same  passages  and  the  same  sentiments  are  repeated 
under  different  aspects,  or  to  ensure  clearness.  This 
seemed  to  the  writer  unavoidable. 

He  desires  to  record  his  grateful  acknowledgments 
to  the   curators  of   the  University  Library  of  Bonn, 
Prussia,  where  the  work  was  written,  for  the  free  access 
allowed  him  to  their  valuable  collection  of  books. 
1 1  Cor.  xii.  13. 


CONTENTS. 


MM 

I.   HOW  TRUTHS  BECOME  THE  SEEDING  OF  IDEAS,          •          *  1 

II.   TWO  MINDS  qR  MODES  OF  CONCEIVING  TRUTH,           •          .  7 

III.  ARCHETYPE  OF  MAN  IN  GOD,  ......  14 

IV.  TERMS  OF  MIND  IN  FLESH,       .           •          •          •          •          •  2M 
V.    INHALING  LIFE  FROM  THE  EXPANSE,         .           ...  34. 

VI.    THE  SOUL  AS  THE  CONSCIOUS  SELFHOOD,  •          .          .        44 

VII.   THE  REALM  OF  SPIRITS,  ......        66 

VIII.   SPIRIT  IN  INSTITUTIONS,          .          .          .          .          .          ,69 

EX.   SPIRIT  IN  MORALS,  .          .          .          .          .          .          .81 

X.    SPIRIT  IN  CONSCIENCE,    .......        94 

XI.    HISTORY  AN  OUTGROWTH  OF  SEED -TRUTHS,      .  .          .107 

XII.   HAPPINESS  OF  BEING  RULED  BY  SPIRIT,  .          .          .116 

XIII.  HOW  HEAVEN  IS  LOST,    .......      128 

XIV.  THE  SPIRITS  IN  PRISON,             .          .          .          ,          .          .144 
XV.    DOCTRINE  IN  HISTORY, .161 

XVI.  DOCTRINE  IN  WORDS  AND  SYMBOLS,          •          •  •  .      176 

XVII.  WORDS  AND  SYMBOLS  IN  POWER,     .  .          .  .  .189 

XVIII.  LAW  THE  BASIS  OF  GOD'S  RULE  IN  THE  SOUI*  .  .      203 

XIX.  THE  NATURE  AND  USE  OF  THE  LAW  IN  STONE,  .  .      216 

XX.  THE  DIVINE  INDWELLING  IN  OUR  SOCIAL  RELATIONS,  .      235 


xvi  Contents. 


XXI.   THE  THEOCRATIC  AS  A  TYPE  OF  THE  SPIRITUAL  MAN,  .  253 

XXII.    GOD  BORN  OF  MAN,  THAT  MAN  MAT  BE  BORN  OF  GOD,  ,  264 

XXIII.  DYING  TO  LIVE, •          .  .  281 

XXIV.  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD  WITH  POWER,                   .          .  294 
r.   SUFFERING  AS  THE  INITIATIVE  OF  POWBS,       .          •  •  208 


SEED-TRUTHS; 


OR, 


BIBLE  VIEWS  OF  MIND,  MORALS,  AND  RELIGION. 


CHAPTEE    I. 

HOW  TRUTHS  BECOME  THE  SEEDIK&  OF  IDEAS. 

A  TRUTH  can  take  no  root  in  our  minds  until  it 
is  embodied  in  words  and  symbols.  Like  a 
wheat-corn,  it  must  die  and  incorporate  its  life  with 
elements  gross  and  unlike  itself,  before  it  can  reappear 
in  enlarged  knowledge  or  improved  character.  As  the 
identity  of  the  seed  is  lost  in  the  process,  and  cannot 
be  known  to  one  who  has  only  seen  the  plant,  so  of 
truths,  especially  those  farthest  removed  from  the 
senses':  they  cannot  be  known  without  careful  search- 
ing, and  are  often  sadly  perverted  by  those  who  stop 
with  their  symbols.  SEARCH  THE  SCRIPTURES  has  a 
peculiar  force  of  meaning  in  the  lips  of  our  Lord. 

The  honour  bestowed  upon  a  plant  has  reference  to 
the  value  of  its  seed.  A  mean  shrub  that  enriches 
us  by  its  products  is  highly  esteemed.  So  God  has 
magnified  His  word  above  all  His  name,1  by  making 
that  part  of  the  infinite  truth  in  Himself,  which  He 

1  Ps.  cxxxv'ii.  2. 
A 


2  Seed-  Truths. 

has  deposited  in  language,  fruitful  in  knowledge,  virtue, 
and  salvation  to  a  lost  race.  This  is  the  word  on  which 
He  has  caused  us  to  hope,  and  for  the  fulfilment  ©f 
which  He  has  taught  us  to  pray.1  It  was  incarnated, 
or  made  flesh,  that  we  might  behold  its  glory,  and  be 
changed  into  its  image.2 

How  much  of  truth  in  thought  and  feeling  fails  of 
the  embodiment  necessary  to  make  it  the  seeding  of 
ideas  to  other  minds !  How  many  a  poem,  great,  per- 
haps, as  Homer's  or  Milton's,  has  been  felt  or  sung  in 
hearts  that  had  not  the  tongue  to  give  it  expression ! 
How  many  inventions  in  art,  that  might  have  blessed 
the  world,  passed  away  like  a  forgotten  dream,  because 
they  were  not  put  into  wood,  iron,  or  brass  !  More  are 
the  seeds  that  perish  without  germination,  than  those 
which  yield  our  harvests. 

Every  well-thought-out  book  has  a  few  leading 
truths,  of  which  the  rest  is  the  husk,  into  which  they 
are  expanded  for  transmission  to  other  minds.  Cowper's 
idea  of  the  ridiculous  spectacle  of  plain  people  seeking 
pleasure  in  unwonted  ways,  by  shaping  itself  into  his 
John  Gilpin,  has  yielded  amusement  to  thousands. 
The  analogies  of  natural  and  revealed  religion,  by  taking 
on  the  reasoning  of  Butler's  Analogy,  have  given  in- 
struction to  succeeding  ages.  Though  the  truths  in 
such  cases  were  the  same,  those  results  could  no  more 
follow,  than  a  harvest  from  parched  corn  or  burned 
wheat,  if  the  words  were  not  added.  A  book  with  a 
few  good  and  great  thoughts  will  live  and  bear  fruit  in 
spite  of  defects  of  style.  Some  of  our  most  prolific 
truths  appeared  at  first  in  a  clumsy  form,  just  as  our 
greatest  machines  began  .with  unartistic  models.  But, 
having  an  idea  in  them,  it  worked  itself  out,  as  the 

>  Fo.  csis.  19.  *  John  i.  14  ;  2  Cor.  iii.  18. 


How  Truths  become  the  Seeding  of  Ideas.     3 

crab-apple  is  said  to  Tiave  produced  by  culture  all  the 
delicious  varieties  of  the  apple  kind.  What  a  poor 
thing  must  have  been  the  first  plough !  But,  having 
in  it  a  great  idea,  it  has  gone  on  increasing,  till  it  now 
breaks  up  millions  of  square  miles  of  soil,  and  tripli- 
cates the  inhabitants  of  the  globe  by  giving  them 
bread. 

Seed-truths  are  the  only  things  in  the  whole  harvest 
which  are  unchanged.  They  are  the  same  in  all  ages. 
The  oaks  that  shade  the  valleys,  and  are  reflected  from 
the  placid  surface  of  lake  or  river,  tall,  expanding, 
majestic,  come  from  a  like  chit  with  their  scrubby, 
gnarled,  tempest-beaten,  lightning-riven  brethren  of  the 
mountain-tops.  From  the  first  planting  by  the  Crea- 
tor's hand,  this  chit  truth  has  remained  the  same, — 
nothing  having  changed  but  the  external  form,  as 
affected  by  soil  or  climate.  The  vegetable  kingdom, 
however,  furnishes  no  greater  examples  of  identity,  in 
all  ages  and  circumstances,  than  the  word  on  which 
God  has  caused  us  to  hope.  In  the  vast  product  of 
ideas  from  the  seeding  of  revealed  truth,  which  has 
appeared  from  Adam  to  this  day,  there  are  a  few 
underlying  principles  which  have  never  changed.  The 
process  has  not  been  one  of  mutation,  so  far  as  they 
are  concerned,  but  of  development.  The  gospel  preached 
to  us  was  before  preached  to  Abraham.1  '  Before  Abra- 
ham was,  I  am,' 2  are  words  asserting  a  oneness  of 
thought  in  redemption  from  the  beginning  of  time. 
One  mind,  one  idea,  one  class  of  truths.  These  are  the 
truths  of  our  inquiry  in  this  work. 

That  the  Bible  has  yielded  a  great  harvest  of  ideas, 
none  will  deny.  And  why  is  it  ?  Why  is  it  to-day 
more  read  and  circulated  than  any  other  book  ?  Why 

1  Gal.  iii.  8.  3  John  viii.  58. 


4  Seed-  Truths. 

is  it  so  impressed  upon  the  fabric  of  our  common  law  ? 
Why  is  it  so  wrought  into  our  civilisation  ?  Why  is 
it  so  generally  quoted,  and  preached,  and  reverently 
listened  to  ?  Why  have  the  most  gifted  minds,  in 
many  cases,  ascribed  to  it  their  best  culture  ?  Not 
certainly  because  its  wars  are  a  model  for  ours.  Not 
because  its  ritual  of  bleeding  beasts  could  edify  us. 
Not  because  we  hope  to  grow  its  inspired  men  in  our 
schools.  Not  because  its  details  of  legislation,  under 
the  old  theocracy,  are  adapted  to  our  age ;  nor  because 
the  present  descendants  of  the  subjects  of  that  theo- 
cracy, in  their  shrewd  practices  on  'Change,  are  at  all 
fitted  to  recommend  it  to  our  adoption.  Not  because 
the  Papal  and  Mohammedan  hierarchies,  fashioned 
after  this  ancient  model  of  a  divine  civil  government 
among  men,  afford  the  least  encouragement  for  us  to 
attempt  anything  of  the  kind.  If  a  theocracy  was  a 
blessing  under  David,  it  is  a  curse  under  popes  and 
sultans.  And  those  who  look  for  its  restoration  in 
the  Holy  Land,  to  rule  all  the  nations  by  means  of 
converted  Jewish  satraps,  'do  err,  not  knowing  the 
Scriptures  nor  the  power  of  God.' 

Seed-truths  live  in  all  ages  and  climes,  because  they 
adjust  themselves  to  the  intelligence  and  wants  of  a 
people.  Abraham's  career,  Moses'  miracles,  David's 
reign,  Solomon's  golden  and  gorgeous  throne,  was  each 
suited  to  its  age ;  though,  if  attempted  in  our  times,  it 
would  prove  as  dead  a  failure  as  a  crop  of  polar  mosses 
tinder  equatorial  suns.  And  yet  is  this  any  evidence 
that  the  same  great  spiritual  truths  did  not  underlie  all 
these  histories  ?  Liberty  has  allied  itself  to  many  a 
bloody  scene  in  the  last  three  centuries  ;  but  is  it  there- 
fore to  be  repudiated  by  those  who  shall  live  in  the 
quieter  days  of  the  future  ?  Its  glory  is  that  it  has 


How  Truths  become  the  Seeding  of  Ideas.     5 

survived  so  many  a  hard-fought  field.  And  the  glory 
of  revealed  truths  is  that  they  have  prosecuted  their 
great  work  of  man's  redemption  with  such  tools,  and 
in  the  midst  of  such  scenes.  They  owe  their  perpe- 
tuity to  their  inherent  vitality,  and  also  to  taking  on 
forms  of  thought  adapted  to  the  several  ages, — just  as  the 
plough-idea  has  survived,  both  by  its  necessity  to  human 
use  and  by  allying  itself  to  the  clumsy  models,  which 
have  repeated  themselves  from  the  crotched  stick  of 
savages  to  the  shining  shares  with  wheels  which  now 
upturn  the  soil.  Eealities  at  bottom,  great,  momentous, 
infinite  realities,  that  man  was  born  to  feel,  put  into  a 
form  to  be  comprehended  by  all, — this  is  the  law. 

As  every  one  of  these  truths  is  from  a  human  stand- 
point, like  all  seeing  from  the  eye,  our  first  inquiry  is 
as  to  what  the  seers  saw  in  man.  What  sort  of  being  is 
that  to  whom  truths  of  God,  truths  of  nature,  truths  of 
providence,  truths  of  redeeming  love,  truths  of  heaven, 
hell,  and  judgment,  are  addressed  ?  What  fits  him  for 
receiving  them  ?  Pictures  are  not  for  the  blind,  nor 
music  for  the  deaf.  Eevelation  is  not  for  brutes,  but 
for  men ;  and  what  in  men  makes  a  divine  revelation 
apropos  to  their  case  ?  The  answer  of  these  questions 
we  take  from  prophets  themselves,  not  from  analysing 
the  facts  of  consciousness  after  the  manner  of  our 
speculative  philosophers.  The  prophets  saw  what  was 
in  man  by  intuition  and  not  by  reasoning,  and  what 
they  saw  they  describe.  Our  business,  therefore,  is 
with  their  language  and  their  symbols. 

If  what  the  seers  saw  in  man  is  not  to  be  trusted, 
nor  made  a  basis  of  science,  what  is  ?  Will  the  meta- 
physics ever  emerge  from  the  quagmire  of  inconclusive 
reasoning  in  which  they  have  been  for  ages  floundering  ? 
They  may  be  an  excellent  discipline  to  the  intellect, 


6  Seed-  Truths. 

as  rope-dancing  is  to  the  muscles ;  but  their  basis  is 
always  unsettled, — always  veering  to  and  fro  between 
realism  and  idealism,  or  between  points  too  subtle  to 
admit  of  a  fixed  basis,  and  which  are  no  nearer  settle- 
ment to-day  than  they  were  two  thousand  years  ago. 
However  excellent  as  intellectual  gymnastics,  they  are 
not  likely  to  enter  largely  into  the  concerns  of  practi- 
cal life. 

But  there  is  this  to  be  said  of  the  inspired  writers, — 
they  give  us  fixed  ideas  of  man  and  his  relations.  They 
present  the  same  ideas  from  Genesis  to  Eevelation,  and 
describe  them  by  like  words  and  images.  The  external 
and  internal  organs  of  the  body — the  adytum  and 
exterior  of  their  temple ;  respiration  as  an  inhalation 
from  two  worlds ;  and  like  symbols,  are  the  form  which 
their  thoughts  on  the  subject  assume.  Their  whole 
system  of  doctrinal  truth,  their  record  of  the  race  from 
beginning  to  end,  and,  we  may  add,  their  anticipations 
of  its  final  destiny,  are  to  their  minds  types  of  the 
nature  and  relations  of  man.  The  salient  points  of 
their  teaching  on  the  subject  will  be  considered  in  the 
following  chapters. 


CHAPTER    II. 
TWO  MINDS  OR  MODES  OF  CONCEIVING  TRUTH. 


writers  of  the  Bible  looked  upon  human  nature 
.JL  as  centring  in  itself  currents  of  thought  and 
influence  from  the  headlands  of  two  worlds,  and  yet 
so  blended  that  the  thinking  agent  himself  does  not 
always  suspect  the  source  of  the  impulses  that  direct 
his  conduct.  He  thinks  them  wholly  of  this  world 
if  his  tendencies  are  materialistic,  or  he  thinks  them 
from  heaven  if  he  is  a  fanatic,  —  both  views  being 
alike  false.  What  is  thought  to  be  from  earth  may  be 
from  the  spirit-land,  and  what  is  ascribed  to  heaven 
may  be  from  hell,  like  the  piety  of  Simon  Magus. 
Human  life,  in  the  Bible  view,  is  the  blended  result  of 
what  acts  upon  us  from  this  outward  scene  of  things, 
and  what  acts  upon  us  from  heaven  and  from  hell.  We 
have  two  distinct  modes  of  conception,  —  one  through 
our  bodily  senses,  of  which  we  have  no  doubt;  the 
other  through  our  spiritual  susceptibilities,  of  which 
perhaps  we  are  not  conscious,  but  which  is  none  the  less 
potent  in  making  up  the  sum-total  of  what  we  are  as 
moral  and  intellectual  beings. 

The  inspired  writers  claim  for  our  spiritual  suscepti- 
bilities, as  ruled  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  the  right  to  con- 
trol us  in  all  things.     These  are  for  dominion,  the  flesh- 
or  natural  life  for  subordination  ;  and  when  they  coexist 
in  that  relation,  they  constitute  the  kingdom  of  heaven 

7 


8  Seed-  Truths. 

upon  earth.  'We  are  double,'  says  an  able  writer, — 
'  one  part  of  earth,  another  of  heaven ;  one  part  gross 
body,  the  other  life  of  the  soul.  Which  of  these  is 
the  better  it  is  not  hard  to  determine.' 

The  apostle  speaks  of  the  ruling  of  the  one  or  the 
other  of  these  opposite  powers  in  the  man  as  TO  c£/?o- 
VTjfjia  TT}<?  aapKos,  the  mind  of  the  flesh,  and  TO  ^pov^fia 
7ov  TTvev/jLaros,  the  mind  of  the  spirit.1  The  one  is 
thought  and  feeling  cast  in  an  earthly  mould,  and  the 
other  is  thought  and  feeling  cast  in  a  heavenly  mould. 
In  the  mind  of  the  flesh  natural  ideas  predominate ;  in 
the  mind  of  the  spirit  heavenly  ideas  predominate. 
The  one  is  carnally-minded,  the  other  is  spiritually- 
minded.  The  one  relates  to  an  earthly,  the  other  to  a 
heavenly  life.  The  one  outward,  the  other  inward, — not 
merely  as  pertaining  to  body  and  mind,  but  according 
as  the  ruling  influence  with  the  man  is  from  God  or 
the  world.  '  For  ye  are  dead/  that  is,  to  an  earthly 
life ;  '  and  your  life  is  hid  with  Christ  in  God/2  or  is 
kindred  to  that  of  Christ,  and  an  emanation  from  Him. 
Your  sources  of  hope  and  joy,  your  principles  of 
activity,  your  desires  and  aversions,  the  scope  and  end 
of  your  lives,  are  from  spiritual  impulses  coming  to 
you  from  God  through  Christ,  and  are  hid,  or  of  a 
character  not  to  be  detected  by  one  who  is  ruled  by 
earthly  ideas.  This  distinction  of  two  opposite  forces 
acting  upon  man,  and  to  be  dealt  with  by  him  volun- 
tarily and  in  freedom,  crops  out  in  the  history  of  his 
creation ;  ol  his  first  life  in  God,  or  under  the  ruling  of 
spirit ;  of  his  subsequent  relapse  under  the  ruling  of  the 
flesh,  and  consequent  apostasy  from  God ;  and  is  reflected 
•in  the  inner  and  outer  apartments  of  the  tabernacle 
and  the  whole  ritual  worship  for  fifteen  hundred  years. 

1  Eoin.  viii.  6.  *  2  Cor.  iv.  1G  ;  Col.  iii.  8. 


Two  Minds  or  Modes  of  conceiving  Truth.     9 

Man's  conscious  self  is  indeed  a  unit,  but  with  two 
distinct  forms  of  thought,  as  also  with  two  directly- 
opposite  tendencies  of  interest  and  desire, — the  one 
natural,  the  other  spiritual.  And  what  can  be  wider 
apart  than  flesh  and  spirit  ?  No  skill  can  bridge  the 
chasm  between  thehi.  £et  tney  are  united  in  man. 
Powers  animal  and  angelic  meet  in  his  conscious  self- 
hood, and  both  may  be  legitimately  exercised  by  him, 
provided  he  assigns  to  the  one  subordination  and  to 
the  other  dominion.  This  seed-trutn  enters  into  all  the 
Bible  representations  of  human  nature.  If  an  earthly 
palace  for  Jehovah  is  to  be  sketched  from  Horeb,  it 
must  have  its  adytum,  with  its  surroundings  of  exterior 
cloisters  and  courts.  If  a  Jewish  doctor  is  to  be  taught 
the  requisites  to  entering  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  he 
must  be  made  to  understand  the  difference  between  flesh 
and  spirit,  or  of  being  born  of  the  one  and  the  other, 
as  the  initial  lesson  on  the  subject.  And  if  the 
Christian  life  is  to  be  unfolded,  it  must  be  as  a  '  walk- 
ing not  after  the  flesh,  but  after  the  spirit.'1  If  there 
are  fundamental  ideas  in  revealed  religion,  this  provi- 
sion for  uniting  two  worlds  in  man  must  be  reckoned 
among  the  number.  It  is  not  a  distinction  superinduced 
by  regeneration,  as  some  suppose,  but  original  to  the 
race.  Regeneration  does  not  create  new  faculties,  but 
merely  puts  in  order  those  that  already  exist.  It 
restores  the  ruling  of  spirit  to  one  who  had  been  under 
the  dominion  of  the  flesh. 

These  two  powers  of  flesh  and  spirit  must  coexist 
under  the  ruling  of  the  latter,  in  order  to  a  normal  and 
happy  condition  of  manhood.  Yet  they  tend  to  bar  or 
exclude  each  other.  To  '  the  natural  man  the  things 
of  spirit  are  foolishness,  and  he  cannot  receive  them, 

1  John  iii   1-12  j  Horn.  viii.  1. 


IO  .  Seed-Truths. 

because  they  are  spiritually  discerned. '  1  When 
natural  ideas  and  feelings  rule  us,  they  exclude  from 
our  minds  spiritual  apprehensions.  They  are  not  in 
harmony  with  influx  from  God.  But  when  spiritual 
truth  and  love  rule  us,  they  enable  us  to  understand 
not  only  what  is  of  God,  but  to  appreciate  the  true 
value  of  earthly  interests.  '  In  God's  light  we  see 
light'  in  reference  to  both  worlds,  and  are  able  to 
'judge  all  things.'  Wrongly  directed,  spiritualism 
bars  true  ideas  of  our  outward  relations  ;  and  we  are 
charged  '  not  to  be  righteous  over-much ;  neither  make 
thyself  over-wise :  why  shouldst  thou  destroy  thyself  ?'2 
Those  whose  absorption  in  spiritual  things,  to  the 
neglect  of  earthly  duties  and  enjoyments,  is  made  a 
necessity  of  the  religious  life,  as  in  the  recluse  and  the 
anchorite,  are  guilty  of  this  sort  of  perversion  ;  '  which 
things  have  indeed  a  show  of  wisdom  in  will- worship 
and  bodily  austerity,  not  in  what  is  honourable  to  the 
fulness  or  perfection  of  the  flesh.'3  They  deny  the 
body  to  improve  the  spirit,  by  a  process  alike  corrupt- 
ing to  both.  Thus  a  spiritualism  which  is  not  duly 
balanced  by  our  earthly  relations  and  duties,  is  scarcely 
better  than  the  dominion  of  the  flesh.  Jesus,  who  had 
the  Spirit  without  measure,  never  lost  sight  of  what 
belonged  to  Him  as  a  citizen  of  this  world.  His  life 
is  a  rebuke  to  all  mystical  and  impracticable  piety.  It 
is  true  that  a  soul  absorbed  in  spiritual  things  may 
momentarily  feel  an  unsettling  of  earthly  ideas  ;  as 
when  Paul  knew  not  whether  he  was  in  the  body  or 
out  of  the  body,  and  Peter  was  scarcely  conscious  of 
what  he  said.4  This  sort  of  exclusion  of  natural 
thought  is  an  exceptional  case,  and  does  not  affect  tho 

M  Cur.  ii.  14,  15.  i.  16. 

»  Co,,  ii.  23.  4  2  Coi.  xii.  2  ;  Luke  ix.  3& 


Two  -Minds  or  Modes  of  conceiving  Triith.    1 1 

general  tone  of  a  holy  life.  The  two  powers  must 
coalesce  into  one  in  order  to  perfection  of  character. 

In  speaking  of  these  two  powers  in  man,  we  must 
not  confound  them  with  appetite  and  reason  or  con- 
science, in  common  parlance.  Seneca,  the  heathen 
philosopher,  makes  a  distinction  between  flesh  and 
spirit  in  the  latter  sense.  Perhaps  he  borrowed  the 
idea  from  Paul,  of  whom  he  was  a  contemporary.  He 
no  doubt  refers  to  the  pleading  of  lust  against  philo- 
sophical reason,  both  of  which  alike  pertain  to  the 
natural  man.  How  many  merely  worldly  men  practise 
great  self-denial  !  How  many  a  fakir  of  India, 
dervish  of  Turkey,  and  monk  of  the  Papacy,  though 
totally  ignorant  of  a  spiritual  mind  in  the  scriptural 
sense,  performs  extraordinary  feats  of  bodily  discipline  ! 
Our  seed-thought  of  flesh  and  spirit  is  quite  another 
thing.  This  thought  contemplates  the  same  mind 
taking  in  and  properly  using  the  ideas  and  influences 
of  this  world,  accepting  '  every  creature  as  good,  and 
nothing  to  be  refused,' *  and  at  the  same  time  draw- 
ing truth  and  love  from  the  heart  of  God,  as  the  power 
ruling  over  all.  However  seemingly  antagonistic,  both 
must  dwell  in  harmony  to  make  us  perfect  men  in 
Christ  Jesus.  One  is  an  open  window  towards  heaven, 
the  other  towards  earth,  and  glowing  with  humanitarian 
sympathies.  One  makes  man  a  member  of  the  family 
in  heaven,  the  other  of  the  family  on  earth, — two 
branches  of  the  same  household  under  one  head  and 
name.2  The  ruling  in  both  is  the  same,  and  is  re- 
flected in  the  natural  man  when  reason  governs 
appetite,  and  conscience  passion. 

But  why  reason  on  the  subject  ?  Our  business  is 
simply  to  set  before  the  reader  Bible  views  of  human 

1  1  TLu.  iv.  i.  *  EI»]I.  iii.  15. 


1 2  Seed-  Truths. 

nature.  In  those  views  is  a  being  made  to  be  God's 
throne,  or  a  representative  of  the  life  of  heaven,  here 
below.  No  other  animal  nature  unites  in  itself  the 
power  to  look  out  upon  tin's  material  scene  through  a 
spiritual  medium,  and  from  a  heavenly  standpoint.  As 
man's  inner  being  is  God's  throne,  so  his  outer  taber- 
nacle is  God's  footstool.  The  two  worlds  in  him  are 
reduced  to  a  single  sovereignty.  All  this  is  reflected 
in  the  terms  spirit  and  flesh,  as  used  by  inspired  men. 
The  inbreathed  divinity  of  the  first  Adam,  which  proved 
a  failure  from  his  succumbing  to  the  flesh  and  repre- 
senting a  fleshly  seed,  and  afterwards  in  the  second 
Adam,  who  is  the  Lord  from  heaven  and  a  quickening 
Spirit,  to  restore  life  to  a  dead  race  by  re-establishing 
a  spiritual  rule,  and  hence  called  the  kingdom  of 
heaven,  to  which  all  who  believe  are  admitted  :  that 
kingdom  came  in  the  person  of  Christ,  and  is  estab- 
lished in  every  spiritual  man  as  a  conquering  power, 
to  rule  out  the  carnal  life  of  the  first  Adam,  with  all 
its  demon  influences.1 

The  efflorescence  and  fruitage  of  these  germinal 
truths  of  man  are  illimitable.  As  some  one  pertinently 
says  :  '  Were  an  inhabitant  of  some  distant  world  able 
to  look  down  upon  our  planet,  his  eye  would  be  most 
attracted  by  the  glittering  painted  pagodas  of  China, 
Borneo,  and  Japan ;  the  rich  ornamental  temples  and 
splendid  rock-shrines  of  India  ;  the  dome-topped 
mosques  and  slender  minarets  of  Western  Asia ;  the 
pyramids  and  vast  temples  of  Egypt,  with  their 
avenues  of  gigantic  statues  and  sphinxes  extending  for 
miles ;  the  graceful  shrines  of  classic  Greece ;  the 
basilicas  of  Rome  and  Byzantium  ;  the  semi-oriental 
domes  of  Moscow ;  the  Gothic  cathedrals  of  Western 

1  1  Cor.  xv.  4G  ;   Matt.  xii.  28  ;   Dun.  ii.  41  ;  Luke  xi.  20. 


Two  A  finds  or  Modes  of  conceiving  Truth.    13 

Europe  ;  and  the  grand  fire  temples  of  Mexico  and 
Peru,  where,  in  the  infancy  of  reason  and  humanity, 
human  sacrifices  were  offered  up,  as  if  the  Ail-rather 
were  pleased  with  the  agonies  of  His  creatures/ 

In  these  varied  architectural  devices  for  intercom- 
munion of  humanity  with  divinity,  there  was  a  secret 
shrine,  a  consecrated  adytum,  in  which  the  parties 
were  supposed  to  meet.  This  comes,  if  not  from 
revelation,  from  man's  inner  consciousness,  that  his 
state  of  communion  with  spirit  was  abstracted  and 
separate  from  his  state  of  intercourse  with  the  objects 
and  interests  of  this  world.  If  sense  opened  the  latter 
to  him,  something  higher,  and  purer,  and  holier  must 
constitute  his  medium  of  intercourse  with  God.  Flesh 
and  spirit  are  dimly  reflected  by  nearly  all  the  forms 
of  worship. 


CHAPTEE    III. 
ARCHETYPE  OP  MAN  IN  GOD. 

THE  inspired  idea  of  human  nature  may  "be  seen 
from  the  model  after  which  it  was  fashioned. 
That  model  is  neither  animal  nor  angelic,  but  is  found 
only  in  God.  An  animal  nature  acts  and  is  acted 
upon  only  by  the  outward  world,  or  through  the  bodily 
senses  and  organs,  while  the  angels  are  purely  im- 
material and  heavenly.  But  God  acts  both  in  nature 
and  in  the  realm  of  spirits.  He  is  supreme  in  both 
kingdoms,  and  unites  their  sovereignty  in  Himself.  So 
man  is  in  communication  with  matter  through  his  senses, 
and  also  with  God  and  spirits  through  his  interior  or 
spiritual  natura  The  two  kingdoms  are  united  in 
frim. 

In  Moses*  vision  of  creation  God  appeared,  saying, 
'  WE  will  make  man  in  OUR  image,  after  OUR  likeness.'1 
There  is  no  other  instance,  except  in  these  first  chapters 
of  Genesis,  in  which  God  adopts  the  plural  pronouns  in 
speaking  of  Himself;  and  it  gives  the  idea  that  the  being 
in  reference  to  whose  creation  He  uses  it  was  to  have 
inherent  differences  of  constitution  suggesting  plurality. 
How  else  are  we  to  account  for  this  mode  of  speaking  ? 
To  suppose  that  it  was  a  slip  of  the  pen,  and  without 
significance,  would  make  this  part  of  Moses'  account 
different  from  all  the  rebt.  Elsewhere  each  statement 

i.  26,  iii.22. 
It 


Archetype  of  Man  in  God.  15 

represents  a  vast  aggregation  of  facts,  as  in  saying,  '  Let 
light  be  ; '  '  Let  the  earth  bring  forth.'  Each  phrase  of 
the  kind  is  like  a  dot  on  the  spectrum  of  a  telescope, 
representing  a  continent  on  the  sun's  disk  greater  per- 
haps than  our  globe. 

This  mode  of  speaking  represents  infinite  truths.  It 
indicates  a  basis  in  God  for  the  distinction  of  Father, 
Son,  and  Holy  Spirit,  as  He  existed  before  all  worlds, — 
a  truth  here  hinted,  but  fully  developed  in  subsequent 
revelations,  especially  of  the  New  Testament.  It  shows 
also  that  the  Godhead  concentrates  His  radiant  glories 
in  the  Son  of  God  as  the  Son  of  man,  whose  delights 
or  affinities  are  '  with  the  sons  of  men.' 1  All  that  is 
of  the  Father,  and  all  that  is  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  shine 
in  '  the  Son  of  man,'  who  is  '  the  beginning  of  the 
creation  of  God,'  and  in  whom  '  dwells  the  fulness  of 
the  Godhead  bodily.'2  He  is  'the  image  of  the  in- 
visible God,  the  first-born  of  every  creature  ;'  by  whom 
'  all  things  are  created  that  are  in  heaven,  and  that  are 
in  earth,  visible  and  invisible,  whether  they  be  thrones, 
dominions,  principalities,  or  powers ;  all  things  were 
created  by  Him :  and  He  is  before  all  things,  and  by 
Him  all  things  consist.'3  By  Him  God  'made  the 
worlds,  who,  being  the  brightness  of  His  glory,  and  the 
express  image  of  His  person  (or  characterization  of  His 
essence),  upholds  all  things  by  the  word  of  His  power.' 4 
'  He  is  the  Word,'  or  divinity  expressed  or  revealed, 
'  being  in  the  beginning  with  God,'  and  at  first  dis- 
embodied, but  afterwards  embodied  or  '  made  flesh,  that 
we  might  behold  His  glory.'  5  It  might  be  convenient 
to  dispose  of  the  WE  and  OUR  of  God  in  speaking  of 

1  Prov.  viii.  31. 

8  Rev.  iii.  14  ;  Col.  ii.  9  ;  Dan.  vii.  13  ;  Rev.  L  13. 

•  Col.  i.  15.  17.  4  Hcb.  i.  2,  3.  3  John  i.  1-14. 


1 6  Seed-Truths. 

Himself,  by  regarding  them  as  a  slip  of  the  pen,  or  a 
trick  of  emphasis,  if  it  were  not  for  the  coincident 
statements  of  the  New  Testament.  Or  these  state- 
ments might  be  set  aside  as  the  hyperbole  of  sanguine 
men  in  glorifying  their  hero,  if  the  whole  revelation 
and  all  its  views  of  the  nature  of  the  man  who  was 
made  in  the  image  of  God  were  not  shaped  to  like 
ideas.  If  the  warp  must  go  with  the  woof,  what  have 
we  left  ?  Without  a  basis  in  the  divinity  for  this 
plurality  of  representation,  how  should  it  have  been 
kept  up  by  men  variously  educated,  and  under  such 
diversified  circumstances,  in  documents  covering  a 
period  of  four  thousand  years  ? 

It  should  be  noted  that  this  manner  of  representing 
God  began  with  the  first  mention  of  the  creation  of 
man.  It  was  in  the  image  and  likeness  of  God  so  re- 
presented, that  man  was  said  to  be  created.  The 
image  of  a  being  is  the  form  which  he  assumes  in 
manifesting  himself;  and  that  form  in  God  has  its 
reflection  in  man.  That  form  is  '  the  Son  of  man,  who 
came  to  the  Ancient  of  days/  'whose  garments  were 
white  as  snow,  and  the  hair  of  His  head  like  pure  wool : 
His  throne  was  like  the  fiery  flame,  and  His  wheels  as 
burning  fire/  A  like  description  is  given  of  '  the  Son 
of  man '  in  the  visions  of  John  in  Fatmos.1  The  form 
was  that  of  man,  but  the  accompanying  imagery  reveals 
the  divine  attributes  concentrated  in  it,  and  shining 
through  it.  The  word  was  the  expression  of  what  there 
is  in  God,  according  to  our  human  types  of  thought,  or 
a  characterization  of  His  essence  or  substance  in  a  form 
of  humanity.  "We  see  not  how  any  other  idea  can  be 
derived  frum  a  careful  collation  and  comparison  of  the 
passages  of  the  inspired  text  which  bear  upon  the 
1  ,  .  :-.  i:j;  Ki-v.  i.  u-18. 


Archetype  of  Man  in  God.  17 

subject,  and  we  can  pretend  to  no  other  source  of 
information. 

The  Father,  thus  one  with  the  Son  of  man  and  the 
Holy  Spirit  as  the  Divine  Proceeding  through  the  Son, 
or  as  the  emanating  energy  working  in  creation,  provi- 
dence, and  redemption,  is  the  central  sun  of  the  uni- 
verse, whose  energy,  whose  influence,  whose  beams, 
operate  in  infinitely  varied  forms  of  manifestation, 
according  to  the  natures  upon  which  and  through 
which  they  act.  The  brooding  Spirit  gave  life  to  the 
chaotic  world,  understanding  to  man,  instinct  to  beasts, 
inspiration  to  prophets,  power  to  the  infant  Church, 
having  descended  upon  her  Head  at  the  baptismal 
waters  in  the  form  of  a  dove,  and  abode  upon  Him 
without  measure.  '  Thou  art  God  that  made  heaven,  and 
earth,  and  the  sea,  and  all  that  in  them  is,'  is  a  favourite 
mode  of  appeal  in  prayer  on  the  part  of  a  suffering 
people,  giving  the  idea  that,  however  weak  in  them- 
selves, they  cannot  but  be  strong  under  the  protection 
of  Him  who  worketh  all  things  in  and  around  them.1 

Man  is  formed  after  a  like  model.  The  outflowing 
energy  of  his  interior  conscious  selfhood,  all  that  is 
possible  to  his  voluntary  agency,  goes  forth  in  the 
direction  of  spirit,  or  in  communication  with  God  and 
heavenly  life,  and  also  in  the  direction  of  matter  wield- 
ing the  bodily  senses,  organs,  and  muscles,  and  so  much 
of  the  world  besides  as  he  is  able  to  affect  by  his 
efforts.  What  earth  is  as  compared  with  what  it 
would  have  been,  if  no  human  mind  had  acted  upon  it, 
is  difficult  to  conceive.  Its  soil  would  have  yielded  no 
such  harvests,  its  animals  would  have  had  no  such 
culture,  its  minerals  and  precious  stones  would  have 

1  John  x.  30,  xiv.  26,  xv.  26  :  Gt-n.  i.  2  j   Matt.  iii.  16,  17  ;  Acts  L 
8,  ii.  4,  et  al. 

B 


1 8  Seed -Truths. 

performed  no  such  office  of  utility  and  adornment,  its 
wood  and  stone  would  have  had  no  such  construction 
into  cities  and  navies,  and  its  sciences  no  such  develop- 
ment. It  is  a  nature  in  the  image  of  God,  and  exercis- 
ing like  functions,  that  has  created  our  histories,  and 
brought  earth  into  communication  with  heaven.  Man 
has  spirit,  man  has  soul,  man  has  body,  all  united  in  the 
one  selfhood,  as  God  is  Father,  and  God  is  Word,  and  God 
is  the  Holy  Spirit,  all  revealed  under  the  one  image  of  the 
Son  of  man,  in  whom  this  divine  fulness  dwells  bodily. 

We  attempt  no  lines  of  demarcation  between  Father, 
Son,  and  Holy  Spirit  in  God,  as  we  cannot  always  dis- 
tinguish between  spirit,  soul,  and  animal  life  in  our- 
selves, though  we  know  that  they  mysteriously  coexist 
in  the  same  conscious  selfhood.  I  know  I  feel  the 
pain  of  a  burnt  finger  as  well  as  agony  purely  mental, 
moral,  and  spiritual  Between  these  extremes  of  matter, 
how  wide  the  field  for  diversity  of  manifestation !  So 
in  God,  between  His  working  in  crude  matter  and  in 
seraphic  life,  can  we  wonder  that  Moses  saw  what 
suggested  to  him  the  idea  of  plurality  ? 

A  Trinity  in  Unity  as  the  archetype  of  man's  nature 
crops  out  in  the  history  of  his  creation.  '  The  Lord 
God  formed  man  of  the  dust  of  the  ground,  and 
breathed  into  him  the  breath  of  life ;  and  man  became 
a  living  soul'1  We  have  here  three  distinct  stages  in 
the  progress  of  the  work : — 1st,  The  creation  of  man 
from  the  ground.  2d,  The  inbreathing  into  him  the 
breath  of  lives  from  God.  3rf,  The  result, — man  be- 
came a  living  soul 

We  have  first  the  ground-nature,  or  the  earth- 
man,  which  must  have  been  fitted  for  the  destiny  of 
the  race.  It  was  a  tabernacle  constructed  for  a  certain 

1  Gen.  ii.  7. 


Archetype  of  Man  in  God.  19 

tenant ;  and  the  constitution,  convenience,  and  activi- 
ties of  the  destined  occupant  must  have  been  provided 
for.  The  same  adjustment  obtained  in  this  case,  no 
doubt,  as  in  all  animal  natures,  whose  organs  and  in- 
stincts are  suited  to  the  element  in  which  they  are  to 
live,  and  the  modes  by  which  they  are  to  subsist.  As 
some  one  has  said,  No  matter  how  low  and  bestial  a 
race  may  be,  if  it  has  a  human  hand,  it  is  susceptible 
of  civilisation.  The  gorilla  and  chimpanzee,  though 
above  it  in  capacity  to  look  out  for  themselves,  for  the 
lack  of  a  hand  are  infinitely  below  the  lowest  race  of 
human-kind  in  their  fitness  for  culture  and  elevation. 

As  the  tenant  in  this  ground-structure  of  the  Creator 
is  what  the  Hebrews  call  ncpkcsh,  or  soul  in  a  peculiar 
sense,  to  which  was  assigned  the  possession  of  the 
lower  animals,  and  the  dominion  of  the  world,  his 
fleshly  tabernacle  must  have  been  suited  to  so  exalted 
a  destiny.  What  we  should  expect  in  this  regard, 
from  the  general  analogy  between  the  natures  and 
habits  of  living  creatures,  we  actually  meet  with  in  the 
earthly  constitution  of  man.  It  is  fitted  to  '  rule  over 
the  fish  of  the  sea,  and  over  the  fowl  of  the  heavens, 
and  over  everything  that  moves  on  the  earth.' l  The 
organic  nature  of  man,  though  not  so  fleet  nor  so 
strong  as  that  of  many  animals,  is  every  way  better 
fitted  for  the  use  of  the  soul  in  exercising  dominion. 

But  how  much  is  included  in  this  first  act  in  the 
process  of  man's  creation  ?  What  were  the  constitu- 
ents of  his  ground-nature  ?  Was  it  merely  a  mass  of 
clay,  shaped  in  the  human  form  by  the  plastic  hand  of 
the  Creator,  as  the  artist  shapes  his  model  ?  Was  it 
without  animal  life  ?  Was  it  without  a  human  soul  ? 
This,  I  think,  is  not  the  idea  of  what  Moses  saw  and 

1  Gen.  L  28. 


2O  Seed-Truths. 

described  For  the  beasts,  with  all  their  instincts, 
were  formed  from  the  earth.  They  were  complete  in 
this  first  act,  and  no  divine  inbreathing  added  to  their 
faculties  or  qualities.  They  came  from  the  earth  living, 
active,  sensational,  thinking,  and  almost  reasoning  crea- 
tures. They  are  gregarious,  as  we  are  social ;  they  are 
great  builders ;  they  have  a  sort  ot  instinctive  justice 
or  conscience  among  themselves  to  live  in  harmony,  as 
thousands  of  bees  in  the  same  hive,  and  as  prairie  dogs 
in  mimic  cities  with  a  sort  of  police.  Thus  their 
ground-nature  verges  towards  human  intelligence ;  and 
some  animals  are  above  some  men  in  ordering  their 
lives.  And  yet  nothing  is  said  of  an  inbreathing  from 
God,  like  that  which  is  the  crowning  fact  of  man's 
creation.  God  simply  said  in  their  creation,  '  Let  the 
earth,  bring  forth  the  living  creature  after  his  kind, 
cattle,  and  creeping  thing,  and  beast  of  the  earth  after 
his  kind  :  and  it  was  so/  1  And  chemistry  shows  that 
the  bodies  of  men  and  animals  are  of  the  same  constitu- 
ent properties  with  the  earth  itself,  and  at  death  their 
dust  is  not  to  be  distinguished  from  vegetable  mould. 

The  part  of  our  race  formed  from  the  ground  con- 
stituted it  MAN.  And  what  is  a  man?  Is  it  clay- 
mould  in  human  shape  ?  Or,  if  the  clay-mould  were 
converted  into  dead  flesh,  would  that  make  a  man  ? 
Or  even  if  animal  life  and  instinct  were  added,  does 
that  reach  our  conception  of  manhood,  or  meet  the 
requirements  of  Moses'  language  in  saying  that  *  God 
formed  MAN  from  the  dust  of  the  ground  ?'  No ;  such 
a  supposition  is  an  outrage  upon  common  sense,  and  a 
confounding  of  language.  What  was  included  in  this 
first  stage  of  man's  creation  was  a  being,  not  only  with 
the  clay-mould  or  animal  life  of  a  man,  but  with  those 

1  Gcu.  i.  21 


Archetype  of  Man  in  God.  21 

faculties  of  thought,  intelligence,  and  reason  which 
supply  in  our  race  the  place  of  brutal  instincts,  or 
which  fit  man  to  he  a  successful  actor  among  the  ele- 
ments of  this  world.  Anything  short  of  this  would 
not  make  the  first  statement  in  the  case  true,  that 
'  God  formed  man  from  the  dust  of  the  ground/  It 
was  the  natural  or  earthly  man  which  was  thus  formed 
with  understanding,  reason,  love  of  the  beautiful,  powers 
of  social  organization,  natural  conscience,  a  sense  of 
civil  justice,  and  all  those  qualities  which  are  neces- 
sary to  the  race  as  the  mere  tenants  of  earth,  having 
dominion  over  nature  and  the  brute  creation.  It  was 
a  being  fitted,  indeed,  to  receive  something  higher, 
holier,  and  more  spiritual,  to  make  the  nephesh  or  soul 
'  living '  in  the  highest  sense  of  that  term.  But  these 
higher  endowments  were  imparted  by  another  act  in 
the  drama  of  creation.  The  spiritual  or  divine  must 
be  added  to  constitute  '  life '  in  the  Bible  sense ;  and,  in 
the  absence  of  it,  all  is  regarded  as  death.1 

The  second  act  is  altogether  the  most  significant,  and 
reveals  the  secret  of  man's  real  importance  in  the  scale 
of  being :  '  God  breathed  into  him  the  breath  of  lives.' 
The  plural  is  used  to  denote  amplitude,  capacity,  variety, 
as  including  civil  and  social  life  of  a  higher  order, — not 
only  a  life  directed  by  intellectual  and  scientific  truths, 
but  by  those  which  are  divine  and  heavenly ;  not  only 
by  knowledges  reasoned  out  on  natural  grounds  of 
evidence,  but  by  intuitional  and 'heart  communion  with 
God  and  angelic  beings,  and  of  open  visions  of  the 
divine  glory.  God  infused  into  a  being  earth-born  and 
earthly  a  spiritual  and  heavenly  nature,  that  he  might 
live,  not  as  the  ruler  of  a  material  and  brutal  kingdom, 
but  reign  as  king  and  priest  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 

1  Gal.  ii  20  ;  John  xiv.  19  j  Eph.  ii.  1  ;  1  Tim.  v.  6. 


22  Seed-Truths. 

These  facts  prepare  us  to  understand  the  sense  of 
the  last  stage  in  the  process, — 'and  man  became  a 
living  soul/  The  same  is  said  of  beasts,  where  they. 
are  called  living  creatures,  or  'the  breath  of  life'  is 
ascribed  to  them.1  But  the  term  life  is  determined  by 
the  being  to  which  it  is  applied,  whether  to  God,  to 
men,  or  to  animals.  Of  course  it  means  in  this  case 
that  man  became  living  in  the  sense  of  the  life  for 
which  the  divine  inbreathing  prepared  him.  It  was  a 
life  not  consequent  upon  his  ground-nature, — for  that 
is  described  as  dead, — but  upon  the  divine  and  heavenly 
infusion  of  which  his  soul  became  the  receptacle.  This 
allied  him  to  God  as  spirit ;  fitted  him  to  receive  God's 
word,  which  has  no  response  in  animal  natures ;  to 
take  his  place  among  the  gods,  as  those  are  called  to 
whom  the  word  of  the  Lord  came.2  It  made  him  im- 
mortal, and,  bodied  or  disembodied,  a  citizen  of  heaven. 
Death,  when  man  was  created,  had  been  the  law  of 
animal  life  from  immemorial  ages,  if  the  testimony  of 
the  rocks  is  at  all  to  be  believed.  The  language  of 
Moses  by  no  means  contradicts  this  testimony.  And 
death  no  doubt  would  have  been  the  law  of  man's 
being  as  he  came  from  the  ground ;  and  even  in  any 
case  his  material  nature  must  have  undergone  a  change 
to  render  it  immortal  It  is  imposing  upon  scientiiic 
men  too  heavy  a  tax,  to  require  them  to  believe  that 
a  structure  like  the  human  body,  made  up  of  solids, 
llu ids,  gases,  and  nervous  tissues,  could  keep  up  its 
action  for  ever,  without  a  change  like  that  of  Enoch 
and  Elijah  fitting  it  for  such  a  destiny.8  A  misinter- 
pretation of  the  apostle's  words,  '  that  death  entered 
the  world  by  sin,'  and  that  '  in  Adam  all  die,'  has  led 
to  the  general  belief  that  both  animal  and  human 
1  Gen.  L  26.  »  Jolm  JL  33.  3  1  Cor.  xv.  50. 


Archetype  of  Man  in  God.  23 

bodies  are  rendered  mortal  by  the  fall  of  man.  The 
error  comes  from  failing  to  consider  that  the  apostles 
use  the  term  sin  for  a  state  as  well  as  an  act,  and  that 
this  state  is  sometimes  called  death,  and  sometimes  sin. 
As  an  act,  '  sin  is  a  transgression  of  the  law/  and  as 
a  state,  it  is  the  coAduion  of  tborje  who  are  made 
sinners,  or  brought  into  guilt  and  condemnation  through 
'  the  sin  of  one  man.'  This  is  the  death  that  carrie  by 
sin : l  '  Flesh  and  blood  cannot  inherit  the  kingdom  of 
God  ;'  '  Dead  in  trespasses  and  in  sins ;'  '  She  that  liveth 
in  pleasure  is  dead  while  she  liveth/  This  is  the  only 
death  inflicted  on  man  the  day  he  sinned,  and  therefore 
must  have  been  intended  by  the  threatening,  '  The 
day  thou  eatest  thereof,  dying  thou  shalt  die.' 2 

The  account  given  by  Moses  of  the  creation  of  man 
is  the  key-note  in  the  epic  of  revealed  religion.  It  is 
the  prologue  of  sacred  history,  throughout  which  the 
nepJiesh — soul — is  eliminated  from  animal  life,  from 
spiritual  life,  and  from  all  the  components  and  rela- 
tions of  man's  being,  as  in  no  other  language  and  no 
other  book  on  earth.  It  shapes  not  only  the  language, 
but  the  symbols  of  divine  worship ;  and  its  ideas  are 
transferred  into  Greek  by  the  apostles,  using  words  in 
a  sense  that  Homer,  Xenophon,  and  Plato  never  ima- 
gined. All  this  comes  to  view  by  carefully  '  searching 
the  Scriptures,'  and  'comparing  spiritual  things  with 
spiritual/ — the  work  which  we  propose  to  ourselves  in 
these  pages. 

1  Rom.  v.  12-21 ;  1  John  iii.  4 ;  1  Cor.  xv.  44-51.  etc.  etc- 
1  Geu.  u.  ij. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

TERMS  OF  MIND  IN  FLESH. 

WRITERS  on  speculative  science  represent  the 
body  as  inert  and  powerless,  except  as  Dieted 
upon  by  the  mind.  The  mind  sees,  hears,  walks,  and 
performs  all  like  functions.  Our  bodily  organs  are 
merely  the  instruments  with  which  the  mind  works, 
as  a  lame  man  uses  his  crutch  ;  and  they  might  perish 
one  after  another,  till  all  were  gone,  and  yet  the  man 
in  his  conscious  selfhood  remain  intact  and  unchanged. 
He  loses  thus  only  the  implements  of  his  work. 
Socrates  very  ingeniously  sets  this  forth  by  a  series  ot 
questions,  in  which  he  eliminates  the  man  from  all  his 
bodily  organs  and  senses. 

Now  this  view,  in  a  far  more  graphic  form,  is 
wrought  into  Hebrew  as  the  language  of  common  life. 
The  nephcsh,  or  soul,  as  permeated  by  spirit  inbreathed 
from  God,  and  connecting  man  with  God,  is  the  re- 
cognised actor  in  all  our  members  and  movements. 
It  is  not  mind  in  our  sense,  but  mind  in  the  image  of 
God — mind  open  to  the  spiritual  as  well  as  material 
world  and  receiving  contributions  from  both  as  a 
medium  power  to  unite  the  two, — thus  making  man 
moral  and  immortal,  a  citizen  of  earth  and  of  the 
spirit-land,  and  imparting  to  his  actions  a  significance 
unknown  to  speculative  philosophy.  Seeing,  with 
inspired  men,  is  knowing,  believing,  enjoying ;  hearing 

24 


Terms  of  Mind  in  Flesh.  25 

is  hearkening,  obeying  ;  smelling  is  imbibing  the  sweet 
odour  of  goodness,  or  disgust  of  wickedness  ;  baring 
the  arm  is  power  ;  putting  under  feet  is  subordinating 
to  authority  ;  carrying  in  the  bosom  is  affection  and 
care  :  and  thus  all  muscular  movement  has  a  spiritual 
and  divine  significance,  as  the  outworking  of  exalted 
and  enduring  forces.  I  am  aware  of  no  language  in 
•which  these  ideas  are  so  framed  into  the  structure  of 
words  and  speech  as  in  the  Hebrew. 

In  this  language  the  outer  organs  of  the  body  give 
names  to  things  that  pertain  to  the  outer  life  of  man, 
and  the  inner  organs  to  the  interior  faculties,  or  mental 
states.  Adam  ground,  methim  mortals,  lasar  flesh, 
golgolcth  skull  or  head,  are  of  the  first  class ;  and 
Icbdb  heart,  kelayoth  kidneys,  kereb  inner  parts,  m&im 
bowels,  are  of  the  second  or  inner  class. 

The  term  adam,  ground,  was  the  name  of  the  first 
man,  and  is  applied  to  mankind  in  general.  It  is 
about  five  hundred  times  variously  used  for  individuals, 
nations,  and  the  race.  The  stem-idea  is  that  of  a 
ground-man,  or  a  being  allied  to  God,  angels,  and  the 
spirit- world,  or  immortality,  but  dwelling  in  a  house  of 
clay,  to  show  forth  in  this  material  world  the  attri- 
butes and  splendours  of  heavenly  life.  The  subject  of 
'  a  kingdom  that  cannot  be  moved/  he  is  surrounded 
by  things  shaken  and  to  be  removed,  in  order  to  give 
place  to  '  a  building  of  God,  an  house  not  made  with 
hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens.'1  Though  thus  en- 
dowed, he  is  still  a  ground-man. "  His  soul,  though 
opaque  and  grovelling,  being  of  the  earth,  earthy,  was 
by  the  divine  inbreathing  rendered  radiant  with 
heavenly  light.  Heaven  is  anchored  to  earth  in  his 
person.  .  Eyes  refulgent  from  communion  with  God 
1  Heb.  xii.  27,  28  ;  2  Cor.  v.  1. 


26  Seed-Truths. 

look  out  upon  this  earthly  scene  through  him,  that 
'  heaven  may  not  want  spectators,  God  want  praise/ 
The  ladder  reaching  heaven  finds  foothold  in  him, 
on  which  angelic  troops  ascend  and  descend.  God's 
kingdom  comes,  and  His  will  is  done  spiritually  as 
in  heaven,  according  to  our  Lord's  prayer.  Here  the 
two  worlds  meet  in  him,  who  is  formed  in  the  image 
and  after  the  likeness  of  God.  All  this  is  included  in 
the  original  conception  of  the  ground-man. 

Mifthim,  mortals,  points  to  dissolution,  and  is  used 
as  a  term  of  weakness.  Jacob  uses  it  in  the  words 
rendered  'few  in  number/1  to  indicate  "the  weakness 
of  his  tribe ;  and  Isaiah,  of  '  the  men  of  Israel '  as 
being  alike  weak  with  the  'worm  Jacob.'2  There 
seems  to  be  little  doubt  that  it  is  made  from  muth, 
to  die,  though  it  is  chiefly  applied  to  men  as  dis- 
tinguished from  women  and  children.  Whether  de- 
rived from  a  change  original  to  the  race,  answerable 
to  what  the  death  of  the  body  now  is,  or  not,  we  can- 
not presume  to  say.  It  is  certain  that  death  in  its 
present  form  would  not  have  been  known  had  it  not 
been  for  sin.  'Dust  thou  art,  and  unto  dust  shalt 
thou  return/  8  is  introduced  in  a  way  to  give  the  idea 
that  a  bodily  immortality  was  originally  provided  for, 
without  thin  return  to  dust.  It  may  have  come,  as  to 
Enoch  and  Elijah,  without  death,  or  as  to  Christ,  with- 
out seeing  corruption.  One  thing  is  certain,  that  a 
glorified  body  is  not  a  material  one,  or  not  subject  to 
mati.'i i:il  laws,  as  our  Lord's  was  not  after  His  resurrec- 
tion. We  call  men  mortals  because  they  die ;  and  the 
ancient  Hebrews  would  appear  to  have  called  them 
methim  for  the  same  cause.  Death  to  holy  men,  how- 
ever, was  not  what  it  is  to  us.  Abraham  at  his  death 
1  Gen.  xxxiv.  30.  '  laa.  xli.  14.  *  Gcii.  ill.  19. 


Terms  of  Mind  in  Flesh.  2  7 

was  '  gathered  to  his  people/  and  was  no  doubt  more 
alive  the  day  his  remains  were  deposited  in  the  cave 
of  Machpelah  than  ever  before.1 

Flesh,  as  a  term  for  man,  denotes  his  exterior  life,  as 
that  is  the  enclosing  casement  of  all  that  is  within  him. 
It  is  often  put  in  contrast  with  spirit,  which  is  the 
window  of  the  soul  heavenward,  as  flesh  is  earthward.2 
'  All  flesh '  is  a  term  many  times  used  for  the  whole 
human  family.  It  is  also  used  for  worldly  pre-emi- 
nence, intellectual  and  material,  in  the  passage,  '  The 
Egyptians  are  great  of  flesh.'3  That  nation  in  the 
time  of  Ezekiel  was  the  centre  of  the  world's  civilisa- 
tion. Still  it  was  all  flesh  or  exterior  show,  and  not 
founded  in  spiritual  power.  '  All  flesh  is  grass '  is  an 
expression  for  the  universal  frailty  of  our  earthly  life.4 

The  skull,  or  head,  is  used  only  in  the  sense  of 
poll,  as  '  an  omer  a  head  ; '  '  every  male  according 
to  their  polls.'  5  In  this  connection  golgohili  denotes 
personality. 

Another  class  of  words  denoting  mental  or  spiritual 
qualities  is  derived  from  the  internal  organs  of  the 
body.  The  inspired  writers  had  no  conception  of  our 
understanding,  heart,  and  will,  or  cognitive,  esthetic, 
and  conative  faculties,  as  mapped  off  and  divided  from 
each  other  by  our  mental  philosophers.  Their  lan- 
guage is  rather  shaped  to  their  ever-present  idea  of 
man  as  the  common  centre  of  two  worlds,  spirit  and 
matter,  angelic  and  animal ;  and  they  offset  the  fore- 
going terms,  denoting  the  animal  contributions  to  his 
material  of  thought  and  action,  with  the  internal  organs 

1  Gen.  xxv.  8  ;  Matt.  xxii.  32. 

1  2  Chron.  xxxii.  8  ;  Ps.  Ivi.  4  ;  Job  x.  4. 

8  Ezek.  xvi.  26.  *  Isa.  xl.  6  ;  1  Pet.  i.  24. 

*  Ex.  xvi.  16  :  Num.  i.  2. 


28  Seed-Truths. 

of  his  body,  as  a  reflection  of  his  higher  relations 
These  two  influences  mingle  in  all  he  is  and  does, 
either  for  good  or  for  evil ;  and  if  he  is  a  mere  beast, 
he  is  so  with  a  significance  and  intensity  of  application 
which  are  impossible  to  the  brute  creation.  He  is 
more  than  earthly  and  sensual, — he  is  devilish.1 

The  word  lebdb,  for  instance,  which  we  render  heart, 
but  with  no  exactitude  to  the  original,  includes  both 
the  intellectual  and  pathematic,  or  affectional  nature, 
or  these  attributes  as  affected  by  our  relations  both  to 
God  and  the  world.  Our  heart  is  used  for  the  affec- 
tional, as  distinguished  from  the  intellectual.  Not  so 
the  Icbdb  of  the  Hebrew.  The  heart,  as  the  seat  of 
animal  life,  derives  its  action  from  absorbing  chyle 
from  the  digested  food  of  the  stomach,  and  from  certain 
properties  of  air  inhaled  by  the  lungs.  Without  these 
united  contributions,  it  would  soon  cease  to  beat.  So 
inspired  intuition  seems  to  recognise  the  mental  action 
as  uniting  in  itself  both  thought  and  feeling.  Both 
must  supply  pabulum  to  every  mental  state  and 
exercise.  Without  thought,  feeling  has  no  being ;  and 
without  feeling,  thought  no  impulse.  Conscious 
mental  action  is  permeated  and  interpenetrated  by 
affectional  influences,  as  melted  iron  by  heat.  And  as 
iron  loses  its  fluidity  when  the  heat  is  gone,  so  the 
mind  loses  thought  when  no  longer  impelled  by  Teeling 
of  some  sort  I  speak  of  the  subject  as  it  seems  to 
me  to  stand  in  the  representations  of  inspired  men,  and 
this  is  the  case  as  it  exists  in  fact  and  in  nature.  The 
nej)hcsh,  mind  or  soul,  is  in  their  view  a  unit,  with 
influences  acting  upon  it  from  flesh  and  from  spirit. 
Whichever  way  it  went  the  whole  man  went,  and  not 
a  part  merely.  He  could  not  truly  give  his  thoughts 
ijaa.iii.15. 


Terms  of  Mind  in  Flesh.  29 

to  God  and  withhold  his  affections,  nor  his  affections 
and  withhold  his  thoughts.  He  cannot  serve  God  and 
mammon.  He  cannot  divide  thought  from  feeling. 

Lebab,  however,  inclines  more  to  the  intellectual 
than  the  affectional,  and  was  used  as  a  verb,  as  we  use 
mind  when  we  speak  of  minding  a  thing.  Thus  in 
Job  it  is  said,  '  Man  hearts  to  be  wise,  or  thinks  to 
be,  though  man  be  born  as  a  wild  ass's  colt.'  *  Wisdom 
here  includes  spiritual  perception,  of  which  man  by 
sin  has  become  as  destitute  as  a  wild  animal.  The 
word  is  also  used  for  doing  things  skilfully,  as  Tamar 
in  baking  cakes  for  Amnon,  and  the  spouse  in  her  arts 
of  captivation.2  Skill  united  to  affectional  influence  is 
the  idea  in  both  these  cases.  It  is  adding  feeling  to 
ingenuity.  It  is  '  mind,  purpose,  intention,  under- 
standing, knowledge,  insight.'3 

Kglayoth,  kidneys  or  reins,  are  used  for  a  lower  order 
of  tendencies  than  heart,  and  is  made  from  a  word 
which  means  to  consume,  as  with  grief,  sorrow,  remorse, 
lust,  voluptuousness,  or  any  strong  inward  feeling  that 
preys  upon  a  man's  nature.  It  is  only  twelve  times 
used,  being  connected  in  several  instances  with  lebab, 
as :  '  Search  my  heart  and  my  kidneys/  4  that  is,  my 
thoughts  and  emotions.  '  My  kidneys  instruct  me  in 
the  night  season,'5  is  a  passage  referring  to  the  guiding 
influence  of  right  emotions,  or  the  inward  movings 
of  the  divine  Spirit,  'teaching  us  all  things.'6  This 
is  the  law  written  in  the  fleshly  tables  of  the  heart. 
The  kidneys  and  heart  stand  related  to  each  other  in 

1  Job  xi.  12.  2  Cant.  iv.  9. 

s  1  Kings  viii.  17,18  ;  1  Chron.  xxii.  7,  xxviii.  2  ;  Job  xii.  3,  xxxiv. 
10  ;  Prov.  vii.  9. 

4  Ps.  vii.  9  ;  Jer.  xi.  20,  xvii.  10 .;  Ps.  xxvi.  2. 

•  Ps.  xvi  7.  6  1  John  ii.  27. 


H^Tm 


30  Seed-  Truths. 

Hebrew  somewhat  like  appetite  and  passion  in  English, 
the  one  tending  to  a  fleshly,  the  other  to  an  intellec- 
tual exercise. 

Mcim,  bowels,  is  also  ten  times  used,  in  the  sense  of 
a  highly  emotional  state,  accompanied  by  pity  or  com- 
passion. '  My  bowels  boiled  ; '  '  my  bowels  sounded 
as  a  harp  ;'  '  my  bowels  resounded  within  me.'1  These 
are  expressions  of  affectionate  yearning  towards  a  suf- 
fering object,  which  the  New  Testament  writers  have 
adopted  in  the  expressions,  '  tender  [bowel]  mercies  ;' 
'  in  the  bowels  of  Jesus  Christ ; '  *  bowels  of  mercies/ 
and  some  others.2  There  are  other  cases  of  the  like 
use  of  similar  organs,  but  these  will  suffice  to  show 
the  general  scope  of  the  whole. 

Not  only  is  mind  the  recognised  actor  in  the  bodily 
members,  but  the  name  of  God  is  the  added  superla- 
tive in  setting  forth  in  Hebrew  what  is  extraordinary ; 
and  the  great  rivers  are  rivers  of  God,  the  great  trees, 
trees  of  God,  the  great  mountains,  mountains  of  God, 
and  a  fertile  country  is  'the  land  the  Lord  hath 
blessed.'  The  lilies  are  painted  with  beauty  by  His 
pencil,  the  fowls  fed  from  His  storehouse,  and  the  very 
hairs  of  our  head  are  all  numbered.  '  They  also  that 
dwell  in  the  uttermost  parts  arc  afraid  at  Thy  tokens : 
Thou  makest  the  outgoings  of  the  morning  and  even- 
ing to  rejoice.  Thou  visitest  the  earth,  and  waterest  it. 
Thou  greatly  enrichest  it  with  the  river  of  God,  which 
is  full  of  water :  Thou  preparest  them  corn,  when  Thou 
hast  so  provided  for  it'  '  Thou  crownest  the  year  with 
goodness.'  '  He  rode  upon  a  cherub,  and  did  fly  ;  and 
He  was  seen  upon  the  wings  of  the  wind.'  '  Deep 

Job  rxx.   2  ;  Isa.  xvi.  11  ;  Jer.  iv.  19,  XXJCL  20  ;  Lam.  i.  20, 
ii.  11. 
»  Luke  L  78  ;  PhiL  L  8  ;  CoL  iii.  12. 


Terms  of  Mind  in  Flesh.  3 1 

calletli  unto  deep  at  the  noise  of  Thy  water-spouts  ;  all 
Thy  waves  and  Thy  billows  are  gone  over  me.'  '  Day 
unto  day  uttereth  speech;  night  unto  night  slioweth 
knowledge.' * 

Thus  in  the  inspired  intuitions  God  was  as  really 
present  in  all  the  objects  and  forces  of  nature,  and  all 
the  events  transpiring,  as  mind  is  in  the  organs  of 
man's  living  body.  The  spiritual  world  was  a  greater 
reality  to  them  than  the  natural  world,  just  as  the 
power  is  greater  than  the  machine  through  which  it 
operates,  the  mind  than  the  body  wielded  by  it,  the  life 
more  than  raiment. 

This  sense  of  God's  present  working,  everywhere 
manifesting  itself  in  the  Bible,  is  not  to  be  confounded 
either  with  the  fancies  of  childhood,  the  local  divinities 
of  the  heathen,  nor  with  the  pantheism  of  poetry  or 
philosophy.  Everything  to  a  child  has  life  or  per- 
sonality. Fairies  disport  themselves  in  the  summer 
woods,  utter  their  sweet  notes  in  the  babbling  brooks 
and  rustling  pines  ;  and  thunder,  lightning,  and  storm 
are  to  his  fervid  fancy  giant  beings  over  his  head, 
putting  the  heavens  in  commotion.  This  childish  feel- 
ing may  be  an  index  to  our  spiritual  instincts,  showing 
how  inseparable  religion  is  from  our  nature,  but  it  has 
little  affinity  with  the  inspired  view  of  God  in  the 
visible  scene  around  us.  Still  more  remote  is  this  view 
from  the  Greek  mythology,  which  peopled  the  world 
with  gods  of  the  hills  and  gods  of  the  plains,  gods  of 
the  groves  and  gods  of  the  fountains,  gods  of  learning, 
war,  agriculture,  and  of  all  the  occupations  of  life.2  ISTor 
is  the  Hebrew  Jehovah  the  sum  of  all  material  forces, 

1  Matt.  vi.  26-34  ;  Ps.  Ixv.  8,  9  ;  2  Sam.  xxii  11 ;  Ps.  xlil  7, 
xix.  1,  2. 

*  1  Kings  xx.  23. 


3  2  Seed-  Truths. 

according  to  pantheism,  but 'a  personal,  conscious,  de- 
signing, acting  Being,  who  '  worketh  all  things  after  the 
counsel  of  His  own  will.'1 

What  a  delightful  sense  of  security  in  danger  does 
this  faith  of  a  present  God  give  to  those  who  have  it ! 
The  besieged  prophet  in  Dothan  was  surrounded  by 
chariots  and  horses  of  fire,  to  assure  him  that  more 
were  they  who  were  for  him  than  against  him.2  Who 
does  not  desire  to  feel  himself  nestling  in  the  bosom  of 
infinite  Wisdom  and  Love  ? — ourselves  infants,  but  con- 
trolled and  protected  by  a  Father's  care.  No  flower 
unfolds  to  us  its  beauties,  but  comes  as  a  gift  from  His 
hand.  No  bird  sings  its  matin  song  which  does  not 
resound  His  praise.  No  evils  can  assail  us  which  He 
cannot  turn  to  our  greatest  good.  We  see  Him  in  the 
revolving  planets ;  feel  Him  in  the  pulsating  life-cur- 
rent within ;  hear  Him  in  the  voices  of  nature ;  and  the 
whole  visible  scene  around  us  is  radiant  with  His 
beauties  and  His  glories.  Nothing  comes  by  chance, 
but  as  the  dictate  of  a  Father's  love.  As,  when  we 
enter  a  furnace,  and  observe  around  us  the  currents  of 
fire  and  the  action  of  huge  iron,  hammers,  or  hear  the 
groaning,  wheezing,  whistling  of  pent-up  steam  as  a 
chained  lion  struggling  for  freedom,  we  stand  secure, 
because  we  have  confidence  in  the  mind  regulating 
these  forces  according  to  law,  so  we  feel  a  greater 
security  amid  the  vaster  forces  of  nature,  because 
Jehovah  has  fixed  the  bounds  beyond  which  they  can- 
not pass.  His  laws  assure  us  that  His  earth  will  not 
fall  from  under  our  feet,  His  stars  will  not  drop  upon 
our  heads,  His  mountains  will  not  crush  us,  ami  His 
raging  deep  will  not  overwhelm  us.  '  Thou  rulest  tho 

1  E].h.  i.  11  ;  Isa.  xxviii.  29  ;  Jcr.  xxxii.  19. 
*  2  Ivin-H  vL  1C,  17. 


Terms  of  Mind  in  Flesh.  33 

racing  of  the  sea :  when  the  waves  thereof  arise,  Thou 
stillest  them.'  *     Who  is  so  great  a  god  as  our  God  ? 

Tholuck,  in  his  exposition  of  the  vine  emblem  in 
the  fifteenth  chapter  of  John,  institutes  a  beautiful 
parallel  between  mind  and  matter.  '  The  Author  of 
the  realm  of  spirits,  he  says,  '  is  likewise  the  Author 
of  the  realm  of  nature :  both  kingdoms  develope  them- 
selves by  the  same  laws.  Wherefore  those  compari- 
sons which  the  Eedeemer  derives  from  the  realm  of 
nature  are  not  mere  comparisons,  serving  to  throw 
light  upon  the  topic  in  hand;  they  are -inward  pro- 
found analogies,  and  nature,  is  witness  for  the  realm  of 
spirits.  This  truth  of  correspondence  floats  dimly  in 
the  allegorizing  Cabalists,  and  is  also  present  in  Sweden- 
borg,  who  did  not  lack  in  apprehension  of  the  principle, 
but  only  in  an  application  of  the  principle.  Their 
principle  was, — everything  that  is  in  the  kingdom  of 
nature  is  found  also  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  Were 
it  not  so,  those  comparisons  would  not  have  the  power 
of  conviction  which  they  exercise  over  unperverted 
minds.' 

Ixxxls.  9, 11. 


CHAPTER    Y. 
INHALING  LIFE  FROM  THE  EXPANSE. 

AFAR  more  significant  class  of  words  now  offer 
themselves  to  our  consideration.  They  are  four, 
— two  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  two  of  the  New. 
The  Greek  terms  are,  however,  a  mere  rendering  of  the 
Hebrew,  with  little  added  except  greater  clearness. 
Neplicsh,  of  which  psuche  is  the  synonym,  and  mack,  of 
which  pneuma  is  the  synonym,  the  first  in  each  case 
being  Hebrew,  and  the  others  the  expression  of  their 
meaning  in  New  Testament  Greek.  Nephesh  and  psuche 
mean  soul  or  mind,  and  ruach  and  pneuma  spirit. 
The  primary  or  physical  idea  expressed  by  the  two 
first  is  breath,  and  they  are  both  made  from  a  word 
which  signifies  to  breathe ;  and  the  primary  or  physical 
meaning  of  the  two  last  is  wind,  and  they  are  made 
from  verbs  that  mean  to  blow.  As  wind  inhaled  is 
breath,  and  breath  exhaled  is  wind,  these  words  have  a 
peculiar  affinity  in  a  natural  sense,  and  equally  so  as 
applied  to  the  spiritual  of  man  and  the  universe. 
They  are  words  which  direct  our  thoughts  from  man  to 
the  aerial,  translucent  expanse,  on  which  he  is  as 
dependent  for  life  as  the  mussel  upon  his  rock,  or  the 
fish  upon  his  wal-cry  home.  Detached,  he  is  as  sure 
to  die. 

By   what    association    of   idoas  wore   the    inspired 
writers  led  to  ad«»pt  SIR-U  •*  mode  of  representation  I 

A. 


Inhaling  Life  from  the  Expanse.          35 

Why  symbolize  soul  by  breath,  and  spirit  by  wind  ? 
No  doubt  it  comes  from  the  necessity  of  breathing  and 
atmospheric  influences  in  order  to  life.  As  animals  are 
under  a  like  necessity,  they  are  designated  by  the  same 
terms.  '  Every  living  creature '  is  in  the  original  every 
living  soul ;  and  ruach,  spirit,  is  applied  alike  to  men 
and  beasts,  where  it  is  said,  '  The  spirit  of  man  goeth 
upward,  and  the  spirit  of  the  beast  goeth  downward.' 1 
The  tenuity  and  evanescence  of  air,  and  the  shadows 
and  mists  encumbering  it,  are  by  some  thought  to  be 
the  point  of  its  resemblance  to  a  ghost  or  ghosts,  as 
they  conceive  of  a  soul  in  its  disembodied  state.  Spirits 
or  ghosts  are  spoken  of  as  '  shades  of  the  dead.'  So 
far  as  simple  animal  life,  common  to  man  and  beasts,  is 
concerned,  or  the  life  that  depends  upon  breathing  air, 
this  may  be  the  chief  point  of  comparison.  But  the 
soul  of  man,  as  a  recipient  of  the  divine  inbreathing,  and 
rendered  immortal,  is  anything  but  evanescent  in  the 
view  of  inspired  men,  and  must  therefore  have  its  analogy 
to  breath  and  breathing,  to  wind  and  blowing,  in  a  very 
different  class  of  facts. 

Is  a  being  with  capacities  for  endless  existence  a 
puff  of  empty  air  ?  Matter  or  material  worship  is  in 
the  Bible  represented  as  shadow  soon  passing  away, 
but  heaven  and  the  objects  of  faith  are  substance.2 
Breath  and  breathing,  therefore,  denote  life,  not  /leath. 
The  absence  of  them  brings  death.  So  long  as  breath- 
ing lasts,  there  is  life.  And  it  was  this  that  consti- 
tuted the  salient  point, — '  In  God  we  live,  move,  and 
have  our  being.'  If  '  to  live  is  Christ,  to  die  is  gain,' 
because  it  opens  to  us  a  higher  form  of  life,  where  the 

1  Gen.  ii.  19,  i.  21  ;  Eccles.  iii.  21  ;  Num.  xxxi.  28  ;  Lev.  xi.  10 
xxiv.  17,  18,  etc. 

2  Ileb.  x.  34,  xi.  1. 


36  Seed-  Tnif/is. 

ncphcsk  or  soul,  instead  of  being  lost  as  a  breath  or 
waif  in  the  unbounded  ether,  will  plume  itself  for  a 
higher  flight,  and  be  borne  aloft  by  another  and  more 
enduring  atmosphere.1  Such  are  clearly  the  ideas  of 
inspiration,  and  such  of  course  must  be  the  design  of 
the  symbolism  which  it  employs.  The  soul  lives  in 
God  as  the  body  in  air,  and  out  of  Him  it  dies  as  in  a 
vacuum. 

Still  higher  ideas  are  included  in  the  soul  as  breath. 
In  the  atmosphere  from  which  we  inhale  life,  sun, 
moon,  and  stars  concentrate  their  radiance  and  their 
influence  to  supply  elements  wanting  to  the  air  itself, 
without  which  we  should  as  certainly  die  as  without 
breathing.  Can  we  live  without  sunlight  ?  Can  the 
pulsating  tides  act  without  lunar  influence  ?  Can  the 
earth  be  held  in  its  orbit  without  that  mysterious 
power  which  we  call  the  attraction  of  gravitation,  keep- 
ing it  in  its  place  in  this  great  family  of  worlds  ?  •  And 
do  all  these  facts  stand  for  nothing  in  this  divine  sym- 
bolism ?  No ;  our  dependence  upon  the  expanse  for 
animal  life,  or  for  breath  and  breathing,  is  the  type  of 
the  higher  and  more  significant  truths  of  the  depend 
ence  of  our  souls  upon  God,  and  the  spiritual  atmo- 
sphere investing  Him  for  the  more  exalted  functions  of 
our  moral  and  immortal  being.  This,  I  think,  is  the 
point  of  the  comparison  of  animal  and  soul  life  which 
the  inspired  writers  had  in  view  in  using  the  terms 
breath  and  wind  in  this  connection.  They  had  in  view 
an  immortal  soul  drawing  all  right  thoughts  and  affec- 
tions from  God,  by  a  process  like  that  of  inhaling  bodily 
life  from  air ;  a  soul  adrd  upon  by  God  Himself,  as  wind 
upon  hivutliing  animals,  fanning  and  inviin. rating  them, 
as  it  were,  by  R]>iritn:il  l»r«-i -/i-s.  like  the  currerts  of  air 

1  AcU  Jivii  28  ;  I'liil.  i.  21. 


Inhaling  Life  from  the  Expanse.          37 

which  purify  and  assist  our  natural  respiration.  '  Pray- 
ing without  ceasing/  *  is  an  exhortation  of  the  apostle 
which  would  be  impossible  on  any  other  principle  than 
such  a  spiritual  respiration.  It  supposes  us  living 
invested  by  God's  real  life-giving  presence,  so  that  we 
can  draw  upon  Him  by  prayer  as  easily  and  continu- 
ously as  upon  the  air  we  breathe.  He  holds  us  in  His 
loving  arms,  as  we  are  held  by  atmospheric  pressure  or 
by  gravitation. 

Our  purpose  is  not  to  impose  upon  the  reader  ideas 
of  our  own,  or  any  fanciful  interpretation  of  the  sacred 
text,  but  simply  the  thoughts  penned  by  inspiration, 
and  what  is  clearly  legitimate  to  them.  The  inspired 
writers  were  indeed  ignorant  of  the  natural  sciences  in 
our  sense  of  that  term.  But  they  had  what  was  better, 
— a  clear  insight  into  the  real  forces  working  in  mind 
and  matter,  forces  which  our  laboratories  and  chemical 
processes  fail  to  reach.  Their  induction  included  facts 
of  the  spiritual  as  well  as  of  the  natural  world,  and  had 
therefore  a  much  broader  basis  than  ours.  And  those 
which  they  derived  from  a  spiritual  source,  when 
rightly  understood  and  interpreted,  will  be  found  per- 
fectly accordant  with  all  true  science.  This  breathing 
process,  by  which  they  represent  spirit  and  soul  life, 
stands  connected  with  ideas  and  statements  from  their 
pen  Avhich  singularly  accord  with  our  most  advanced 
discoveries  in  reference  to  atmospheric  influence.  We 
know  that  our  lives  do  not  depend  simply  upon  inhal- 
ing atmospheric  air,  but  upon  innumerable  chords  of 
influence  from  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  radiating  through, 
and  interpenetrating  as  threads  of  lace,  the  whole  aerial 
expanse.  Every  star  in  heaven  supplies  so  important 
an  element  to  this  aerial  tissue,  that  if  it  were  gone  it 

1 1  Thess.  v.  17. 


38  Seed-Truths. 

would  destroy  the  equilibrium  of  forces ;  the  earth 
would  be  jostled  out  of  its  place,  and  undistinguished 
ruin  would  ensue.  We  should  as  surely  die  without 
sun  and  moon  light,  and  without  the  ministering  stars, 
as  without  an  atmosphere  to  breathe.  A  congealed 
ocean  and  a  polar  winter  overspreading  all  the  earth, 
would  extinguish  the  last  remains  of  animal  and  vege- 
table life. 

Thus  in  the  Bible  not  only  are  we  represented  as 
'living  in  God,'  as  we  live  in  air,  but  as  ministered  to 
by  spiritual  beings,  executing  specific  commissions 
from  God  for  the  training  and  preservation  of  our  race. 
The  idea  of  angelic  intermediation  in  the  affairs  of  men 
is  as  constantly  kept  before  our  view  as  the  world  we 
live  in,  or  the  beings  inhabiting  it.  '  God  maketh  His 
angels  spirits,  and  His  ministers  a  flame  of  fire.'  *  Are 
they  not  all  ministering  spirits,  sent  forth  to  minister 
to  them  who  shall  be  heirs  of  salvation  ? ' *  Both  these 
passages  are  connected  with  facts  of  material  nature, 
such  as  the '  stretching  out  the  heavens  as  a  curtain,' '  lay- 
ing the  beams  of  His  chambers  in  the  waters,' '  making 
the  clouds  His  chariot,'  '  walking  upon  the  wings  of  the 
wind,'  '  making  the  worlds,'  '  upholding  all  tilings  by 
the  word  of  His  power,'  as  if  angelic  ministrations  were 
symbolized  by  the  ministering  elements  and  heavenly 
bodies.  How  much  had  angels  to  do  in  the  patriarchal 
histories,  in  the  career  of  Moses  and  subsequent  pro- 
phets, and  in  the  New  Testament  events !  No  one  can 
look  at  this  record  with  an  impartial  eye,  without  feel- 
ing that  we  breathe  a  spiritual  air,  and  are  ministered 
to  by  a  spiritual  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  as  well  as  those 
which  are  material. 

Nor  do  inspired   men  confine  their  ideas  merely  to 

'*?».  civ.  4  ;  1Kb.  i.  14. 


Inhaling  Life  from  the  Expanse.          39 

good  beings  and  influences  from  the  spiritual  world, 
but  include  also  those  which  are  bad.  The  bad  they 
liken  to  a  noxious  atmosphere,  and  speak  of  it'  as  '  the 
prince  of  the  power  of  the  air,  the  spirit  that  worketh 
in  the  children  of  disobedience  :  among  whom  we  all  had 
our  conversation/  or  impulse  to  life  and  conduct,  '  ful- 
filling the  desires  of  the  flesh  and  of  the  mind.' L  As  a 
malarious  atmosphere  introduces  disease  to  those  who 
breathe  it,  and  excites  an  abnormal  action  of  the  blood, 
state  of  the  appetite,  and  of  the  whole  physical  man, 
so  inhaling  a  spiritual  atmosphere  ruled  by  the  devil 
and  his  angels  influences  lust  and  voluptuousness,  and 
leads  to  all  manner  of  error  and  wickedness.  It  is 
only  on  the  principle  of  an  instituted  analogy  between 
natural  breathing  and  spiritual  influence  that  such 
passages  as  the  foregoing  can  be  legitimately  inter- 
preted. The  prince  of  the  power  of  the  air  acts  upon 
our  moral  nature  or  soul-life  as  malarious  air  upon 
those  who  breathe  it.  Unclean  spirits,  of  which  we 
have  such  frequent  mention  in  the  Gospels,  influence 
men  and  beasts  on  analogous  principles,  as  they  left 
the  maniac  to  madden  the  swine.  We  here  attempt 
no  explanation  of  these  facts,  but  simply  notice  the 
comparison  which  the  Bible  institutes  between  them 
and  those  of  breathing  and  atmospheric  influences. 

The  infinite  Spirit  acts  both  upon  matter  and  upon 
mind,  giving  a  life-producing  power  to  the  waters,  and 
understanding  to  man.2  The  two,  ruacli  and  ncplicsli, 
spirit  and  soul,  in  man  commingle  their  influence,  as 
wind  and  blood  in  the  lungs,  -the  result  being  what  we 
see, — a  conscious  responsible  being,  uniting  in  himself 
what  Tholuck  calls  '  the  realm  of  spirits  and  the  realm 
of  nature.'  These  two  distinct  realms  meet  in  the  soul 
lEph.  iL  2,  3.  2  Gen.  i.  2 ;  Job  xxxii.  8. 


40  Seed-  Truths. 

of  man.  Soul  is  interfused  by  spirit  as  melted  iron  by 
heat,  and  at  the  same  time  it  is  interpermeated  by 
material  or  animal  influences. *  It  sees  God  on  the  one 
hand,  it  sees  the  world  on  the  other.  There  is  no  like- 
ness between  the  two ;  for  nothing  is  like  God,  and 
no  material  substance  approximates  spirit,  though,  to 
convey  ideas  of  the  former,  we  are  compelled  to  sym- 
bolize it  by  the  latter,  as  we  said  in  our  first  chapter. 
The  life  of  a  plant  is  no  more  soil  than  breath  is  soul, 
or  spirit,  wind ;  but  can  it  live  and  become  seeding 
without  soil  ?  But  though  breath  is  not  soul,  it  is  a 
necessity  of  the  soul's  life  in  the  body,  and  therefore 
a  fitting  symbol  to  represent  it.  So  wind  is  a  great 
power  in  nature,  and  therefore  a  fitting  representation 
of  Spirit,  who  came  upon  the  apostles  as  '  a  rushing 
mighty  wind/  and  so  was  their  promised  gift  of  '  power 
from  on  high/  And  '  the  wind  or  breath  of  our  nostrils 
is  the  anointed  of  the  Lord/  '  the  unction  of  the  Holy 
One  by  which  we  know  all  things,  and  is  truth,  and  is 
no  lie/1  It  is  spirit  as  a  breathing  medium,  analogous 
to  our  atmosphere,  which  imparts  to  us  faith,  divine 
communion,  the  capacity  for  acceptable  worship,  and 
all  the  highest  qualities  of  our  nature.  The  apostle 
takes  occasion  to  say  that  this  sort  of  inspiration  is 
'  truth,  and  no  lie/  and  Jeremiah  calls  it  '  the  anointed 
of  the  Lord/  to  rebuke  the  tendency  in  us  to  regard 
everything  unreal  which  is  not  material  This  extra- 
ordinary gift  of  power  to  the  Church  would  have  been 
the  normal  condition  of  human  nature  had  it  not  been 
for  sin.  Man  was  originally  created  for  the  exercise  of 
those  powers  which  we  now  call  miraculous  ;  the  divine 
inbreathing  insured  them  to  him.  But  he  lost  them  by 
abjuring  the  dominion  of  spirit  for  that  of  the  flesh. 
1  Compare  Luke  xxir.  49 ;  AcU  L  5,  il  2 ;  Lam.  iv.  20 ;  1  John  ii.  27. 


Inhaling  Life  from  the  Expanse.          41 

Thus  two  kinds  of  respiration  are  clearly  set  "before 
us  by  the  inspired  writers, — first,  that  by  which  our 
animal  life  is  preserved;  and  second,  that  by  which 
our  spiritual  life  subsists.  They  had  both  in  view,  no 
doubt,  in  their  references  to  the  material  expanse, — soul 
breathing  in  the  properties  of  air,  and  spirit  breathing 
in  the  higher  influences  supplied  by  the  heavenly 
bodies.  The  boundless  empyrean,  infinite  ethereal 
spaces,  the  properties  of  light  shining  from  innumer- 
able orbs,  are  subjects  of  frequent  reference  in  the 
Bible.  '  The  heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God,  and 
the  expanse  showeth  His  handiwork.'  '  When  I  con- 
sider Thy  heavens,  the  work  of  Thy  fingers,  the  moon 
and  stars,  which  Thou  hast  ordained ;  what  is  man  that 
Thou  art  mindful  of  him,  or  the  son  of  man,  that  Thou 
visitest  him  1 '  * 

But  it  may  be  said  the  seers  had  not  the  light  of 
our  science  to  guide  them,  and  they  could  not  there- 
fore have  had  our  enlarged  views  of  nature.  True, 
they  knew  nothing  of  the  attraction  of  gravitation; 
but  do  we  know  what  it  is  ?  They  had  what  was  better 
than  our  name  for  this  unknown  thing, — the  clear  view 
of  a  divine  Power  holding  all  the  orbs  and  elements' 
in  their  places,  '  guiding  Arcturus  with  her  sons,'  and 
'  binding  the  sweet  influences  of  Pleiades.' 2  Science 
sees  in  gravitation  a  power  conterminous  with  matter ; 
they  saw  a  Power  alike  conterminous  with  a  universe 
of  matter  and  of  mind.  One  Jehovah  rules  in  both, 
and  was  infinitely  more  to  them  than  the  name  of  an 
unknown  power.  Spiritual  Omnipotence  pervades  the 
domain  of  nature  and  of  spirits,  and  affords,  to  the 
human  soul  breathing  in  both,  to  make  sure  that,  though 
the  animal  organism  depending  upon  the  one  be  dis- 
1  Ps.  xix.  1,  viii.  4,  5.  a  Job  ix.  9,  xxxviii.  28-37. 


42  Seed-  Truths. 

solved,  the  soul  itself  will  rise  like  a  phoenix  from  the 
ashes  of  its  desolation,  and  plume  itself  for  everlasting 
progress  in  holiness  and  bliss.  The  nephcsh  of  the 
Hebrews  is  represented  as  standing  between  two  worlds, 
the  uniting  link  between  the  two. — a  son  of  earth  and 
a  son  of  God. 

These  views,  though  pervading  the  Old  Testament, 
are  not  so  clearly  seen  as  in  the  New.  There  centred 
in  the  God-man,  the  archetype  of  humanity,  not  only 
the  faculties,  attributes,  and  breathing  necessities  of  an 
earthly  nature,  but  '  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead  bodily.' 
'  All  power  in  heaven  and  earth '  thus  took  on  the 
forms  and  conditions  of  our  common  manhood.  And 
through  Him  a  like  impartation  is  made  to  those  to 
whom  '  He  gives  power  to  become  sons  of  God.'  '  They 
are  born,  not  of  blood,  nor  of  the  will  of  the  flesh,  nor 
of  the  will  of  man,  but  of  God.'  '  They  have  put  on 
the  new  man,  which  is  renewed  in  knowledge  after  the 
image  of  Him  that  created  him.'  The  idea  is,  that  the 
true  Spirit  is  Christ,  whether  manifesting  Himself  as 
God  or  in  flesh,  in  His  own  person  or  in  that  of  His 
renewed  people, — '  He  in  us,  and  we  in  Him.'1 

It  is  only  by  this  twofold  view  of  breathing  and 
living,  one  of  flesh,  and  the  other  of  spirit,  that  we  can 
explain  many  tilings  in  the  Bible.  How  else  can  we 
'  pray  without  ceasing,'  as  I  have  already  said  ? 

How  else  can  the  asking  and  the  having  be  simul- 
taneous ?  (1  John  v.  15.)  Inhaling  is  having  breath; 
and  truly  desiring  a  grace  or  virtue  is  to  have  it. 

How  else  can  hungering  and  thirsting  after  righteous- 
ness insure  an  instant  fulness  ?  (Matt.  v.  6.) 

If  God  as  a  Spirit  were  not  investing  a*  supplicating 
people  as  their  breathing  expanse,  or  if  He  were  not 

1  John  L  13,  14 ;  Col.  ill  10  ;  John  xvii.  21,  xv.  5,  etc.  etc. 


Inhaling  Life  from  the  Expanse.          43 

present  as  speech  to  a  hearing  ear,  how  could  what  God 
says  be  true,  that  '  before  they  call,  I  will  answer ;  and 
while  they  are  speaking,  I  will  hear?'  (Isa.  Ixv.  24.) 

How  else  can  the  Holy  Spirit  be  surer  to  them  that 
ask  Him,  than  good  things  are  from  parents  to  their 
pleading  children  ?  (Luke  xi.  1 3.) 

How  else  can  a  hidden  life  from  God  reach  a  soul 
through  Christ  ?  (Col.  iii.  3.)  Must  there  not  be 
spiritual  respiration  to  insure  such  a  result  ? 

How  else  can  man  live  otherwise  than  by  bread 
alone  ?  (Deut.  viii.  3  ;  Matt.  iv.  4.) 

Where  there  is  a  failure  to  take  in  these  divine 
sources  of  life,  the  breathing  is  not  in  that  direction, 
but  towards  the  world :  '  Ye  ask,  and  receive  not, 
because  ye  ask  amiss,  that  ye  may  consume  it  upon 
your  lusts.' 1  Even  if  desire  goes  towards  a  spiritual 
atmosphere  it  is  to  subserve  a  worldly  end,  like  that  of 
Balaam  and  Simon  Magus ;  nothing  but  demon  influ- 
ences will  follow,  and  we  shall  be  more  than  ever 
'  in  the  gall  of  bitterness,  and  under  the  bond  of 
iniquity.' 2 

1  Jas,  iv.  3.  *  Acts  viii.  23. 


CHAFER    VI. 
THE  SOUL  AS  THE  CONSCIOUS  SELFHOOD. 

WHAT  is  the  exact  position  which  inspired 
writers  assign  to  the  soul,  as  distinguished 
from  flesh  and  spirit  ?  That  there  is  a  difference,  not 
only  appears  from  the  relation  in  which  they  are  placed 
to  each  other  generally  in  the  Bible,  but  by  their 
being  specifically  used  by  the  apostle  for  three  separate 
ideas  in  the  same  sentence  :  That  '  your  whole  spirit 
and  soul  and  body  be  preserved  blameless  unto  the 
coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.'1  We  easily  dis- 
tinguish between  soul  and  body,  and  spirit  and  body ; 
but  what  is  the  difference  between  soul  and  spirit  ? 
This  is  the  question. 

The  synonymous  words  ncphesh  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, and  psuche  of  the  New,  are  used  with  a  discrimi- 
nation which  is  not  expressed  by  our  word  soul,  by 
which  they  are  rendered.  Soul  with  us,  as  applied  to 
mind  in  distinction  from  body,  is  the  same  as  spirit. 
A  man's  soul  is  his  spirit  But  psuche  of  the  New 
Testament  is  never  used  for  ruack,  or  spirit,  but  always, 
when  applied  to  men,  for  nephesh,  or  soul.  The  ten- 
dency of  psuche  is  towards  the  flesh ;  and  the  adjective 
made  from  it,  psuchikos,  means  animal,  or  the  animal 
nature,  and  in  our  common  version  it  is  rendered 
'  natural '  and  '  sensual.' 2  But  ruach  and  pneuvia, 

1 1  Thess.  v.  'J3.  '  1  Cor.  ii.  14  ;  Jas.  iii.  15. 

44 


The  Soul  as  the  Conscious  Selfhood.        45 

spirit,  have  a  directly  opposite  tendency,  and,  from 
being  applied  to  man's  inner  being,  it  supplies  a  name 
for  God.  Or  perhaps  the  order  should  be  reversed, 
and  we  should  say  that,  from  being  applied  to  God,  it 
became  a  name  for  that  in  man  which  responds  to 
God,  as  it  was  before  man's  creation,  that  '  the  ruach, 
or  Spirit  of  God,  brooded  on  the  face  of  the  waters.' 
And  in  the  New  Testament  it  supplies  the  adjective 
pneumatikos,  spiritual,  which  is  the  direct  opposite  of 
psitchikos,  natural,  sensual,  or  animal.  How  then  can 
two  words,  one  of  which  means  divine  and  spiritual 
life,  and  the  other  animal  life,  be  conceived  of  as 
expressing  the  same  ideas  when  applied  to  the  nature 
of  man  ?  No,  soul  and  spirit  are  heaven-wide  apart 
in  their  acceptation  by  inspired  men.  True,  the  inner 
nature  of  man  is  called  soul,  because  connected  with 
animal  life  ;  and  spirit,  because  a  recipient  of  influence 
from  God.  So  we  call  a  person  a  cottager  because  he 
lives  in  a  cottage,  and  a  scholar  because  he  is  a 
learner  ;  but  does  that  make  cottage  and  scholar 
synonymous  terms  ? 

The  stem- thought  of  soul,  as  used  by  inspired  men, 
is  that  of  a  conscious,  personal,  responsible  selfhood. 
It  covers  the  whole  ground  of  man's  free  voluntary 
agency.  .When  the  limits  of  that  agency  are  exceeded 
in  any  direction,  the  things  we  meet  with  are  not  part 
and  parcel  of  a  man's  soul.  They  may  pertain  to 
somebody  else's  soul,  or  to  brute  force,  but  not  to  that 
particular  individual  soul  to  which  one  applies  the 
word  self  when  he  is  speaking  of  his  own.  My  body 
may  be  forced,  but  not  my  soul.  My  outward  deeds 
may  be  distrained,  but  not  my  will.  The  veriest  slave 
wills  to  be  free.  Quite  another  process  is  necessary  to 
enslave  the  soul  than  that  of  simple  force.  It  must 


46  Seed-  Truths. 

be  done  by  perverting  the  will  through  deception, 
ignorance,  or  some  modification  of  the  selfhood,  where- 
by the  man  is  made  to  choose  what  he  would  not 
choose  in  a  right  state  of  his  faculties.  This  is  trading 
in  the  souls  of  men,  of  which  Borne  is  not  alone 
guilty,  but  every  government  and  organization  which 
obstructs  the  march  of  truth. 

There  is  no  way  of  moving  the  soul  but  through  the 
will ;  for  the  moment  the  soul  were  distrained  against 
its  consent,  whether  by  God  or  men,  its  selfhood  would 
end,  and  another  power  come  into  its  place.  Suppose 
the  laughing-gas  be  administered  to  a  man,  and  he 
plays  various  unconscious  pranks  under  its  influence, 
is  it  himself  that  acts  ?  If  he  is  out  of  his  head,  as 
we  say,  do  we  not  set  his  doings  to  another  account 
than  his  responsible  selfhood  ?  To  say  that  a  man's 
personality  is  anything  but  his  conscious  willing,  is  to 
make  him  a  chemical  compound,  or  a  mere  secretion 
of  matter.  He  cannot  will  against  his  will.  Soul 
inviolability  is  the  great  idea  of  revealed  religion. 
The  whole  Bible  is  constructed  with  reference  to  it. 
It  is  a  great  argument,  influencing  men  to  the  choice 
of  truth  and  good.  And  what  is  redemption,  but 
recovering  men  to  the  love,  preference,  and  practice  of 
goodness  ?  How  could  stronger  proof  be  given  of  the 
inviolability  of  the  human  will,  than  God's  expedients 
to  induce  our  choice  of  Him  and  His  service  before  all 
others  ?  Popes  and  kings  may  use  coercion  in  matters 
of  conscience,  but  God  never, — for  the  good  reason  that 
virtue  is  not  virtue,  and  holiness  is  not  holiness,  only 
so  far  as  the  soul's  unconstrained  will  and  desire  go 
out  after  them.  Man  is  in  the  image  of  God  in  this 
absolute  supremacy  within  his  own  domain,  and  with- 
out partnership  >iii  the  throne  except  as  ho  consent* 


The  Soul  as  the  Conscious  Selfhood.       47 

to  admit  one.  Such  is  the  ncphesh,  or  soul  of  the 
Bible. 

Bunyan's  idea  of  the  soul  as  a  castle  is  biblical  and 
authentic.  It  is  a  castle  open  to  spirit  on  one  side, 
and  flesh  on  the  other,  but  none  can  enter  except  at 
the  option  of  the  reigning  lord  within.  His  business 
is  to  keep  guard  at  ear-gate  and  eye-gate,  and  at  all 
the  avenues  of  sense,  on  the  one  hand ;  and,  on  the 
other,  to  '  try  the  spirits  whether  they  are  of  God, 
because  many  false  prophets  [malign  spiritual  in- 
fluences] are  gone  out  into  the  world.' 1  If  he  admits 
evil  from  either  of  these  sources,  it  is  at  his  peril, 
because  law,  conscience,  God,  hold  him  responsible 
as  the  ruling  power  within.  No  matter  how  multitu- 
dinous the  army,  authority  is  a  unit  in  its  head.  No 
matter  how  various  the  powers  subordinate  to  the  soul, 
that,  in  the  view  of  inspired  men,  is  the  seat  of  all 
moral  responsibility.  Each  soul,  within  its  own 
measure  of  duty,  has  the  question  of  its  virtue  or  its 
vice,  its  holiness  or  its  sin,  its  happiness  or  its  misery 
to  all  eternity,  to  decide.  What  questions  in  national 
diplomacy  can  equa^  these  ?  God,  in  making  each  one 
his  own  diplomat,  puts  the  utmost  dignity  upon  the 
soul. 

The  metaphysicians  have  for  ages  controverted  the 
question  as  to  whether  ideas  are  derived  wholly  from 
the  external  senses,  or  partly  from  intuition  ;  and  they 
are  as  far  now  as  ever  from  reaching  a  satisfactory 
result.  But  the  inspired  writers  view  the  subject  from 
quite  another  standpoint.  They  looked  upon  the  soul 
as  the  centre  of  a  world  of  flesh,  on  the  one  hand, 
offering  him  its  contributions  ;  and  of  spirit,  on  the 
other,  reaching  him  through  another  channel,  or  by 

1 1  John  iv.  1* 


48  Seed-  Truths. 

a  different  mode  of  apprehension.  One  is  an  object  of 
sense,  the  other  of  faith.  Both  unite  its  experiences 
in  the  soul,  or  selfhood.  The  Hebrew  seers  had  not 
reached  the  point  of  madness  to  deny  the  contributions 
of  either  the  one  or  the  other.  They  believed  the 
eye  did  see  light,  and  not  a  merely  subjective  illusion 
of  the  fancy.  They  believed  that  faith  did  act,  as 
seeing  Him  who  is  invisible.  The  objective  realit}^  of 
both  a  spiritual  and  natural  world  stood  to  them  on 
the  same  basis, — the  fact  of  their  being  conscious  of  a 
nature  that  took  truths,  influences,  and  impressions 
from  both.  To  them  a  bird's  wing  supposed  the  reality 
of  air,  and  the  fish's  fin  the  reality  of  water.  So  the 
power  to  receive  inflowing  truth  and  love  from  God 
made  His  existence  a  stupendous  fact ;  just  as  the 
power  to  take  impressions  from  this  world  through  the 
five  senses  made  that  also  to  them  a  vast  domain  of 
substantial  thought  and  expatiation.  All  aglow  with 
seraphic  fire  at  viewing  the  divine  glory  in  both,  they  cry, 
'  Alleluia  :  for  the  Lord  God  omnipotent  reigneth.' 1 

There  is  recognised  in  the  Bible  neplicsh,  or  soul,  a 
retributive  provision,  that  when  he  lets  in  an  enemy 
he  cannot  drive  him  out.  A  dominating  sin  or  lust ' 
once  entrenched  in  the  castle  is  a  strong  IIKIII  armed, 
that  can  only  be  dispossessed  by  One  stronger  than  he. 
To  will  oneself  into  crime  is  easy,  but  to  will  one- 
self back  again  into  innocence  is  impossible.  The  soul 
is  indeed  still  free  to  follow  desire  ;  but  when  that  is 
perverted,  it  is  an  ignis  fatmis,  to  lead  into  still  more 
iii'-xtricable  error.  He  is  then  "  the  servant  of  sin."2 
Hut  this  is  a  servitude  of  choice,  and  therefore  morally 
like  tin-  sl;m-  with  his  car  pinned  to  the  door- 
post of  his  ma  ;<  r,  who  v. ,:  so  by  his  own  election.1 
1  Rev.  xix.  6.  f  Juhii  viii.  J4.  «  Ex.  XXL  «. 


The  Soul  as  the  Conscious  Selfhood.        49 

The  controversy  between  free-will  and  necessity,  there- 
fore, ends  in  this,  that  men  are  free  and  not  necessi- 
tated, because  they  do  as  they  choose  ;  and  yet  they 
are  slaves  to  evil,  because  evil  dominates  their  affec- 
tions, and  deprives  them  of  the  will  to  be  free  from 
its  power. 

Another  power  accorded  to  the  nephesJi  of  the  Bible, 
even  in  its  slavery  to  evil,  is  that  of  being  a  successful 
actor  among  the  elements  of  this  world.  He  can  apply 
himself  to  science,  to  art,  to  agriculture,  to  architecture, 
and  thus  lay  the  foundation  of  a  beneficent  civilisation. 
The  loss  of  one  sense  leads  to  a  more  careful  culti- 
vation of  those  that  remain ;  the  loss  of  heaven,  as  a 
power  in  the  soul,  has  turned  all  human  energy,  in  a 
certain  sense,  upon  making  the  most  of  a  purely  intel- 
lectual, animal,  and  material  life.  True,  it  is  a  soil 
cursed  with  briars  and  thorns ;  and  while  it  causes 
much  labour  and  misery,  it  affords  infinitely  less  happi  - 
ness  than  under  the  ruling  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

It  is  a  mistake  of  certain  sanguine  reasoners,  how- 
ever, to  claim  for  Christianity  the  sole  civilising  agency. 
Nations  totally  unchristian,  and  unspiritual  except 
demon- worship,  are  far  advanced  in  an  intellectual  and 
material  civilisation.  The  Chinese  were,  a  few  cen- 
turies ago,  in  advance  of  all  the  world  in  printing  and 
paper-making,  in  inoculation  to  mitigate  contagious 
disease,  in  the  use  of  the  magnetic  needle,  in  highly- 
improved  methods  of  agriculture  and  of  certain  arts, 
and  in  other  means  of  individual  and  social  progress. 
The  Egyptians,  Chaldeeans,  Greeks,  and  Eomans  of  the 
ancient  heathen  ages  are  to  this  day  our  models  in  art, 
civil  law,  and  architectural  magnificence.  Their  lost 
arts  are  not  yet  recovered  in  our  age  of  boasted  pro- 
gress. 

D 


50  Seed-Truths. 

No  doubt  a  true  spiritual  condition  for  a  people  is 
infinitely  better  than  any  other,  just  as  virtue  is  better 
than  vice,  and  truth  than  error ;  but  this  is  not  saying 
that  a  man  without  them  may  not  have  much  valuable 
knowledge  in  worldly  matters.  Those  who  violate 
God's  laws  in  some  things,  and  keep  them  in  others, 
will  experience  the  disadvantage  in  the  one  case,  and 
the  benefit  in  the  other.  I  have  seen  some  earnest 
Christians  on  neglected  farms,  with  everything  going  to 
waste  around  them,  while  their  infidel  neighbours  were 
surrounding  themselves  with  thrift  and  plenty.  The 
one,  perhaps,  were  faithful  to  spiritual,  but  negligent  of 
natural  laws ;  the  other,  negligent  of  spiritual  laws,  but 
lived  up  to  the  letter  of  those  which  concern  farming 
and  business.  Inspired  men  never  represent  the  sub- 
ject in  any  other  light,  but  insist  that  if  a  man  will 
not  .work,  neither  shall  he  eat.1  What  we  call  talent, 
natural  endowments,  education,  worldly  advancement, 
they  recognise  in  the  frequent  mention  of  Egyptian  and 
Chaldsean  opulence  and  glory ;  but  they  never  regard 
them  as  wisdom,  for  that  begins  with  the  fear  of  the 
Lord.2  The  nephcsh,  or  soul,  must,  in  their  view,  have 
the  Holy  Spirit  to  sanctify  and  ennoble  all  worldly 
good,  ail  material  and  intellectual  achievements.  This 
is  the  only  visdom,  because  it  alone  unites  in  itself  the 
two  worlds  cf  which  man  is  a  tenant. 

The  ncplmh  of  the  Old  Testament  is  used  about 
seven  hundred  times,  and  psucJie,  its  synonym  of  the 
New,  seventy  times.  In  our  common  version  they  are 
nearly  four  hundred  times  rendered  soul,  twenty-seven 
times  as  a  personal  pronoun,  seventy  times  as  life, 
jwenty-five  times  as  person,  ten  times  mind,  once 
will,  six  times  desire,  three  times  pleasure,  twelve 

*  2  Tliesa.  iii.  10.          »  Pror.  L  7  ;  Job  xxviiL  28  ;  Prov.  ix.  10. 


The  Sold  as  the  Conscioiis  Selfhood.        5 1 

times  heart,  once  beauty,  twice  ghost,  once  spirit,  three 
times  appetite.  Its  application  to  beasts  and  dead 
bodies  we  omit  as  not  pertinent  to  our  .subject.  The 
stem-idea,  as  I  before  said,  is  that  of  the  man  as 
distinguished  from  body  and  from  spirit.  Hence  its 
use  as  a  pronoun,  person,  life,  mind,  spirit,  will,  de- 
sire, pleasure,  heart,  ghost,  appetite.  These  are  mere 
expressions  of  what  the  soul  is,  or  what  is  consequent 
upon  its  existence. 

It  can  live  in  the  body,  and  it  can  live  out  of  the 
body ;  it  can  be  in  communion  with  God  and  angels, 
or  with  the  world  and  devils.  It  is  not  an  ethereal 
essence,  as  some  foolishly  speak  of  it,  to  be  diffused  at 
death ;  but  it  has  an  identity  of  its  own  which  it  will 
never  lose.  '  Thou  wilt  not  leave  my  soul  in  Hades, 
nor  suffer  Thine  Holy  One  to  see  corruption,' *  proves 
that  our  Lord's  soul  retained  its  conscious  selfhood  in 
its  state  of  separation  from  the  body.  'To-day  shalt 
thou  be  with  me  in  paradise'2  is  a  promise  which 
insured  to  the  thief  on  the  cross  the  conscious  integrity 
of  his  soul  after  death,  as  well  as  to  his  Eedeemer. 
Of  Eachel  it  is  said,  '  Her  soul  was  in  departing  (for  she 
died),'3 — that  is,  departing  from  its  dissolving  taber- 
nacle of  the  body,  as  a  nomad  from  his  falling  tent. 
This  is  the  apostle's  view  of  the  relation  of  the  soul  to 
a  dying  body :  it  leaves  a  transient  for  a  permanent 
house.4  Thus  in  many  passages  the  soul  is  detached 
from  the  body  as  a  subsistence  by  itself,  or  the  sole 
conscious  personality  of  the  man,  which  is  nowise  de- 
pendent upon  the  body  except  as  a  medium  of  converse 
with  the  material  world. 

So,  on  the  other  hand,  the  soul  is  eliminated  from 

1  Acts  ii.  27.  8  Luke  xxiii.  43. 

8  Gen.  xxxv.  18.  4  2  Cor.  v.  L 


52  Seed-Truths. 

spirit,  as  the  receptacle  from  the  substance  which  it 
contains,  or,  as  I  said  before,  as  heat  from  the  iron 
which  it  holds  in  solution.  Indeed,  the  spiritual 
atmosphere  has  the  same  relation  to  the  soul  as  air  to 
animal  life.  '  Because  I  live,  ye  shall  live  also  ; '  '  He 
that  believes  in  me  hath  everlasting  life;'  'He  that 
eateth  me,  even  he  shall  live  by  me/ 1 — are  all  pas- 
sages in  which  the  pronouns  'ye'  and  'he'  denote  the 
soul,  the  only  part  of  the  man  capable  of  everlasting 
life ;  while  the  life  itself  which  it  derives  from  Christ 
is  spiritual,  or  divine,  and  heavenly.  It  involves  the 
soul's  holiness  and  happiness,  the  means  to  which  are 
not  in  itself,  but  come  from  living  in  Christ  as  in  a 
spiritual  atmosphere,  or  from  believing  in  Him  and 
living  upon  Him,  as  upon  our  daily  food  The  apostle 
also  speaks  of  '  dividing  between  soul  and  spirit,'2  which 
would  be  impossible  if  they  were  identical  It  con- 
sists in  distinguishing  between  what  the  soul  derives 
from  its  natural  life,  and  its  life  in  spirit  or  in  God. 
'The  anchor  of  hope*"  also  supposes  that  the  soul  may 
have  a  hold  upon  spirit  in  God,  and  so  enjoy  '  strong 
consolation ; '  but  it  is  a  hold  upon  what  is  as  distinct 
from  itself  as  the  ship  and  the  bottom  of  the  sea  upon 
which  the  flukes  of  its  anchor  take  hold.8  The  spiritual 
influence  of  which  a  witnessing  Church  is  the  organ  is 
distinct  from  '  the  soul  converted  from  the  error  of  his 
ways'  by  its  means.4  Indeed,  if  spirit  and  soul  were 
always  the  same,  then  every  man,  being  actuated  only 
by  his  soul,  would  be  spiritual,  whereas  we  make  a 
broad  distinction  between  being  spiritual  and  having 
a  soul  to  save  or  lose.  A  man's  soul  may  be  carnal, 
sold  under  sin,  and  thus  remote  as  possible  iroiu 

»  John  iiu  86,  vi.  67,  xiv.  Ifc  *  Heb.  iv.  12. 

»Heb.  vi.18.  «Ja*.v.  20. 


The  Soul  as  the  Conscious  Selfhood.       53 

spirit.  Soul  is  the  man,  spirit  his  life  from  God. 
The  one  is  Bimyan's  castle,  the  other  the  heavenly 
king  to  whom  its  occupant  owes  fealty. 

This  elimination  of  the  soul  from  flesh  and  spirit  is 
wrought  into  the  structure  of  the  Hebrew  language. 
It  gives  it  terms  of  personality.  On  a  careful  review 
of  some  hundreds  of  cases  in  which  soul  is  used,  it  will 
be  found  that  the  personal  pronouns,  or  other  designa- 
tion of  personality,* would  in  other  languages  express 
the  same  idea,  though  not  with  the  same  discrimina- 
tion. '  Every  soul  [person]  must  eat ; '  '  Ye  know  the 
soul  [selfhood]  of  a  stranger ; '  '  If  a  soul  [person]  touch 
an  unclean  thing ; '  '  Serve  Him  with  all  your  soul ' 
[undivided  self];  'Three  thousand  souls'  [persons]; 
'  Hungry  soul '  [hungry  man] ;  '  Full  soul '  [full  man]  ; 
and  so  throughout.1  Lexicographers  speak  of  it  as  a 
Hebraism;  but  whether  original  to  the  language,  or 
infused  by  the  ideas  of  those  using  it,  is  a  question. 
Ideas  shape  words,  rather  than  words  ideas.  Hebrew- 
speaking  men,  before  and  after  the  time  of  Abraham, 
had  conceptions  of  human  nature  that  involved  the 
necessity  of  such  a  use  of  words.  They  were  a  shep- 
herd-people, with  few  arts,  small  trade,  and  a  limited 
demand  for  words  in  those  directions,  but  of  deep 
spiritual  insight,  making  discrimination  in  that  direc- 
tion a  law  of  speech.  Imagine  a  people  shaping  their 
language  to  the  acutest  distinctions  of  the  metaphysics, 
till  in  that  form  it  became  the  speech  of  common  life, 
and  we  may  have  some  idea -how  spirit,  soul,  and  animal 
life  came  to  be  so  carefully  distinguished  from  each 
other  in  the  original  Scriptures! 

This  distinction  was  a  necessity  of  their  faith.     It 

1  Ex.  xii.  16,  xxiii.  6  ;  Lev.  v.  2  ;  Deut  xi.  13 ;  Acts  ii.  41 ;  Prov. 
xxvii.  7. 


54  Seed-TrutJis. 

was  their  religion  to  regard  the  world,  its  impressions 
and  its  duties,  on  the  one  hand,  and  God,  on  the  other, 
influencing  them  as  Spirit,  and  revealing  Himself  to 
their  spiritual  apprehensions.  This  is  the  law  in  the 
formation  of  thought  from  the  natural  world,  the  out- 
ward scene  producing  in  the  infant  various  sensations, 
and  these  sensations  terminating  in  thought  and  memory. 
All  sensation  is  not  thought,  though  its  tendency  is 
towards  thought ;  nor  is  all  spiritual  influence  truth  to 
the  understanding,  but  a  predisposing  cause  of  objec- 
tive truth.  Eeligious  reasoners  are  full  of  nonsense  on 
this  subject,  fancying  that  nothing  could  have  existed 
to  influence  their  moral  character  which  is  not  included 
in  thought  and  memory.  Thought  and  memory  may 
cover  their  responsibility,  though  even  that  is  greatly 
increased  or  diminished  by  the  previous  influences  act- 
ing upon  them.  What  a  savage  remembers  of  himself 
cannot  produce  the  same  responsibility  with  that  of  a 
child  in  a  highly  civilised  and  virtuous  family.  The 
unseen  forces  revealing  themselves  in  our  consciousness 
are  greater  treasures  of  character,  if  possible,  than  the 
seen. 

As  I  have  said,  spirit,  soul,  and  body  were  so 
radically  distinct  in  the  Hebrew  mind,  and  so  essential 
in  its  worship,  as  to  give  form  to  its  temple,  with  its 
holiest  place,  its  holy  place,  and  its  exterior  courts  and 
cloisters.  But  in  the  gospel  they  are  more  marked, 
and  its  piety  and  its  virtue  involve  'citizenship  in 
heaven/  '  Christ  dwelling  in  us  by  faith/  '  the  hidden 
man  of  the  heart/  and  the  like,  as  distinguished  from 
'  doing '  outwardly  '  things  contained  in  the  law '  on 
the  part  of  those  who  are  represented  as  'without  God 
in  the  world/  because  their  inner  sense  was  not  open 
to  God,  and  they  did  nothing  out  of  a  regard  to  His 


The  Sold  as  the  Conscious  SelfJwod.        55 

holiness  and  love.1  The  soul  of  inspired  men  there- 
fore has  an  outer  court  of  natural  virtues,  conservative 
worldly  influence,  and  of  civilisation,  even  when  the 
adytum  of  spiritual  apprehensions  is  utterly  closed 
against  God  and  heaven,  and  is  actually  open  to  a  hell 
of  malign  agencies  and  doctrines  of  devils.  Is  not  this 
view  a  reflection  of  real  life  ? 

1  Compare  Phil.  iii.  20,  Eph.  iii.  17,  18,  1  Pet.  iii.  4,  with  Kom.  it 
14,  15,  Eph.  ii.  12. 


CHAPTER  VH 
THE  REALM  OF   SPIRITS. 

IF  any  one  asks  what  spirit  is,  or  where  its  realm, 
we  should  be  compelled  to  answer,  as  Newton 
did  in  reference  to  gravitation,  that  we  know  it  in  its 
effects,  but  not  in  its  nature.  That  there  is  a  power  of 
mind,  extraneous  to  matter,  working  out  its  results  in 
ways  that  chemistry  cannot  reach,  nor  science  explore, 
comes  to  us  with  the  same  sort  of  evidence  as  that 
there  are  working  all  around  us  physical  forces  that 
we  cannot  explain.  Who  knows  but  these  unknown 
forces  may  be  spirit,  or  bordering  on  its  realm  ?  The 
more  subtle  the  element,  the  greater  the  power;  and 
the  gnarled  oak  and  granite  ledge  are  riven  by  an  un- 
seen bolt  hurled  by  an  unseen  hand.  Can  we  tell  how 
the  sunbeams  are  generated,  and  how  they  work  out 
results  so  all-pervading,  so  stupendous  ?  Can  we 
divine  the  principles  of  cohesion  by  which  the  sand- 
grains  of  a  stone  are  held  in  such  close  affinity,  ex- 
plain the  needle's  adhesion  to  the  pole,  or  the  earth- 
quake's power  to  upheave  continents  ?  Or  can  we  any 
better  explain  how  it  is  that  spiritual  ideas  should  work 
out  results  in  human  nature  so  magnificent  ? 

There  is  much  curiosity  at  present  abroad  to  explore 
the  realm  of  spirits.     More  are  taxing  their  ingenuity 
in  this  direction  than  to  find  the  north  pole.     Mediums 
profess  to  put  their  gaping  audiences  into  communica- 
te 


The  Realm  of  Spirits.  57 

/ 

tion  with  the  souls  of  the  dead.  That  these  souls 
exist  as  substantive  entities,  or  as  knowing,  conscious, 
active  beings,  and  in  connection  with  worlds  infinitely 
more  populous  than  our  own,  is  no  doubt  true  ;  but 
that  they  have  modes  of  physical  or  electrical  com- 
munication with  us  needs  proof  that  has  not  yet  come 
to  our  knowledge.  Furthermore,  necromancy,  or  at- 
tempts to  converse  with  the  dead,  besides  being  for- 
bidden in  Scripture,  are  found  injurious  to  those  who 
practise  them.  The  soul  is  substance,  but  not  matter ; 
and  when  detached  from  matter  by  death,  it  has  an- 
other and  higher  sphere  of  action,  or  is  in  an  element 
or  realm  suited  to  its  disembodied  nature.  Whether 
in  future  ages  souls  in  the  body  will  come  into  more 
tangible  connection  with  the  departed,  who  is  able  to 
say  from  anything  within  the  range  of  our  present 
experience  ? 

Spirit  is  not  matter,  nor  can  it  be  believed  to  be 
matter  even  in  its  subtlest  forms.  What  in  matter 
does  thought  resemble  ?  With  what  effervescing  fluid 
can  we  compare  a  mental  emotion  ?  Spirit  is  sub- 
stance, no  doubt,  and  of  a  nature  more  enduring  than 
any  material  element ;  but  what  on  earth  can  it  act 
through  or  with,  except  the  soul  of  man  ?  How  can 
the  disembodied  effect  material  changes  through  any 
other  channel  ?  To  suppose  that  it  reverses  the  order, 
and  works  upon  the  soul  by  manipulation  or  magnetism, 
is  to  suppose  matter  a  suppler  element  in  the  hand  of  a 
spirit  than  the  soul  which  is  in  affinity  with  it.  When 
that  future  age  of  enlarged  spiritual  manifestation 
comes,  we  imagine  it  will  be  through  a  generation  of 
souls  in  more  intimate  affinity  with  God  and  heaven, 
and  not  one  of  enlarged  magnetic  or  electric  science. 
We  leave  all  doubtful  hypotheses  on  this  subject  and 


58  Seed-Truths. 

keep  to  the  letter  of  those  inspired  men  who  lived  so 
many  ages  in  open  visions  of  heaven. 

These  men  are  clear  on  one  point,  that  there  is  in 
the  soul  a  capacity  to  take  impressions  from  the  realm 
of  spirits,  and  in  due  time  to  become  itself  an  occupant 
of  that  realm.  This  is  the  sanctum  sanctorum  of  human 
nature.  Here  God  sets  up  His  throne  and  writes  His 
laws.  Here  His  shechinah  of  truth  is  to  shine,  and 
His  rod  of  authority  to  bud  and  bloom.  Thence  are  to 
go  forth  the  decrees  regulating  all  our  outward  life. 
Spiritualism  must  work  outward  from  this  interior  life, 
instead  of  working  inward  through  the  nerves.  Here 
divine  truth  and  love  are  to  have  their  seat  as  a  sort 
of  heavenly  intuition,  guiding  us  into  all  truth.1  In- 
tellectual reasoning  is  more  exterior.  It  is  in  the 
place  of  daily  ministrations,  or  of  natural  and  worldly 
knowledges.  Those  graces  which  are  the  fruit  of 
divine  influence  are  independent  of  the  logical  faculties  ; 
and  hence  the  ablest  reasoners  are  often  deficient  of 
them,  but  they  are  revealed  unto  babes.2  A  child's 
love  to  his  parents  is  a  surer  guide  to  doing  their  plea- 
sure than  any  amount  of  logic.  If  all  the  virtue  of 
this  world  had  to  be  reasoned  out  as  an  intellectual 
problem,  how  much  should  we  have  ? 

No;  the  impulses  are  deep  through  which  God's 
Spirit  works  out  its  results.  The  deepest  fountains, 
fed  from  distant  headlands,  throw  their  jets  highest 
into  the  air.  So  of  those  impulses  in  man  which  are 
in  communication  with  the  realm  of  spirits.  They 
gush  forth  in  the  most  demonstrative  deeds.  We  call 
them  heart,  affections,  which  unconscious  children  and 
even  animals  have  as  well  as  we,  and  sometimes  even 
more  decisively ;  and  yet  they  have  nothing  spiritual 
» John  xvL  13.  *  Matt.  xi.  25-27. 


The  Rea Im  of  Spirits.  5  9 

about  them.  A  change  of  heart  does  not  express 
the  full  idea  of  regeneration.  No ;  it  is  a  birth  of 
the  Spirit,  and  is  effected  upon  the  spiritual  nature, 
upon  the  conscience-faculties,  or  upon  those  powers 
which  connect  man  with  the  realm  of  spirits  as  his 
native  land.  It  opens  that  land  to  him  which  erst  had 
been  closed.  It  cleanses  the  sanctuary  of  his  inner 
being,  that  God  may  resume  His  alienated  throne. 
God's  entrance  into  the  soul  of  man,  through  the 
hitherto  closed  gates  of  a  fleshly  life,  is  solemnly 
heralded :  '  Lift  up  your  heads,  0  ye  gates  ;  and  be  ye 
lifted  up,  ye  everlasting  doors ;  and  the  King  of  glory 
shall  come  in.  Who  is  this  King  of  glory  ?  The 
Lord  strong  and  mighty,  the  Lord  mighty  in  battle.'1 
What  is  closed  against  God,  but  the  soul  of  man  walled 
in  and  barricaded  by  fleshly  appetites  and  worldly 
ideas  ?  Or  what  more  extraordinary  than  the  Holy 
Spirit's  entrance  into  the  soul  in  regeneration,  heralded 
as  it  is  by  gospel  truths  awakening  the  conscience  and 
impressing  the  heart  ?  It  is  effected  by  power,  or  by 
the  'Lord  strong  and  mighty,  the  Lord  mighty  in 
battle/  who  is  stronger  than  the  strong  man  armed,  and 
spoils  his  goods,  and  is  .thus  heralded  back  to  His  own 
throne  in  human  nature.  The  kingdom  then  comes, 
ruling  within.  Is  not  this  a  conquest  of  something 
more  than  of  the  affections  ?2  Are  not  the  affections 
themselves  set  right  by  an  anterior  influence  of  Spirit, 
reopening  communication  between  the  soul  and  the 
spirit-realm  to  which  it  appertains  ? 

Besides,  all  the  facts  of  a  Christian  life  represent  it 

as  a  walk  with  God,  or  walking  in  the  Spirit,  or  as 

maintained  to  the  end  by  perpetual  influx  from  the 

spiritual  world.     '  I  will  come  in  and  sup  with  him, 

1  Ps.  xxiv.  7-10.  2  Luke  xi,  21,  22,  xvii.  21. 


6o  Seed-  Truths. 

and  he  with  me  ; '  '  He  shall  be  loved  of  my  Father, 
and  I  will  love  him,  and  will  manifest  myself  to  him.'1 
This  is  to  be  the  experience  of  one  whose  soul  is  open 
to  God,  and  who  truly  loves  God.  He  shall  sup  with 
God,  and  God  with  him.  and  have  continual  manifesta- 
tions of  Christ  given  to  him  ;  and  thus  the  utmost  free- 
dom of  intercourse  is  established  between  himself  and 
the  realm  of  spirits.  He  is  under  the  guardianship  of 
angels.2  He  has  the  feelings  of  a  child,  to  say  '  Abba, 
Father/  '  The  Spirit  itself  beareth  witness  with  our 
spirit.'  The  Spirit  intercedes  within  us,  and  maketh 
intercession  for  us,  showing  a  correspondence  between 
what  is  passing  in  the  man  himself  and  in  heaven,  as 
message  responds  to  message  through  a  hidden  track 
in  the  sea  from  Europe  to  America.  '  We  have  an 
Advocate  with  the  Father,  Jesus  Christ  the  righteous/ 
'  who  ever  liyeth  to  make  intercession  for  us/  Nor  is 
this  an  apologetic  advocacy  or  intercession,  like  that  of 
a  barrister  for  his  unfortunate  client,  to  soften  the 
Father's  heart  towards  our  sins,  but  one  that  consists 
in  a  continued  supply  of  spiritual  force,  to  enable  us 
to  overcome  our  sins.  The  word  advocate  in  the  ori- 
ginal is  paraclete — comforter,  reprover,  guide,  to  call  us 
away  from  a  sinful  to  a  spiritual  and  heavenly  life,  of 
which  He  is  our  Mediator  to  keep  the  way  of  access 
ever  open.3  Advocacy  or  intercession,  as  an  abstrac- 
tion, apart  from  restored  power  from  the  spirit-realm  to 
enable  us  to  overcome  the  world,  is  a  thing  unknown  to 
inspired  men.  '  I  have  overcome  the  world;'  'Greater 
is  He  that  is  in  you,  than  he  that  is  in  the  world ;' 
'  This  is  the  victory  that  overcomes  the  world,  even 
your  faith  ;'  '  Whatsoever  is  born  of  God  overcometh 

1  Rev.  iii.  20  :  John  xiv.  21.  s  TTeh.  i.  14  ;  Ps.  xcl  12, 

»  Bom.  viii.  15,  1(J,  20,  ii7  ;  1  John  ii.  1  ;  Heb.  vii.  25. 


The  Realm  of  Spirits.  6 1 

the  world.'1  These  are  passages  which  show  the  na- 
ture of  Christ's  work  as  our  Advocate  and  Intercessor. 
It  is  through  Him  that  spiritual  power  flows  conti- 
nually into  the  hearts  of  them  that  believe,  enabling 
them  to  achieve  a  victory  that  otherwise  would  he 
impossible. 

As  regeneration  and  redemption  are  returning  to  the 
realm  of  spirit,  or  the  ruling  of  God  in  the  soul,  they 
are  so  referred  to  by  the  apostle  :  '  Ye  are  come  unto 
mount  Sion,  and  unto  the  city  of  the  living  God,  the 
heavenly  Jerusalem,  and  to  an  innumerable  company 
of  angels,  to  the  general  assembly  and  Church  of  the 
first-born,  which  are  written  in  heaven,  and  to  God  the 
Judge  of  all,  and  to  the  spirits  of  just  men  made 
perfect,  and  to  Jesus  the  Mediator  of  the  new  covenant, 
and  to  the  blood  of  sprinkling,  that  speaketh  better 
things  than  the  blood  of  Abel.'2  Could  anything  be 
more  explicit  as  to  what  redemption  and  regeneration 
amount  to  ?  As  heaven  was  open  to  man  in  his  first 
creation,  but  was  closed  when  he  came  under  the  ruling 
of  flesh  and  the  world,  so  it  is  opened  again,  and  all 
its  blessed  inhabitants  become  his  associates,  when  he 
returns  to  them  a  new  man  in  Christ.  This  restored 
connection  with  God  in  spirit  is  cause,  of  which  the 
renewed  affections  and  the  holy  life  are  effects.  Hence 
the  sealing  or  graces  of  the  Holy  Spirit  are  '  after  ye 
had  believed.' 3 

The  realm  of  spirits  is  unlike  that  of  nature  in  itself, 
and  in  its  modes  of  thought,  activity,  and  happiness. 
Still,  in  the  normal  condition  of  manhood,  it  is  as 
accessible  as  matter  to  the  body.  Sin  alone  can  close 
it  to  us,  and  substitute  in  its  place  demon  influence. 

1  John  xvi.  33  ;  1  Johii  iv.  4,  v.  4.  »  Heb.  xii.  22-24. 

»  fcph.  i.  13. 


6  2  Seed-  Truths. 

Owing  to  this  substitution  of  hell  for  heaven  in  the 
sensual  or  natural  man,  the  first  step  in  redemption 
was  '  to  destroy  the  works  of  the  devil/  '  For  this 
purpose  was  the  Son  of  God  manifested/ l  His  first 
battle  was  with  Satan,  among  the  wild  beasts  of  the 
wilderness,  the  vanquishing  of  whom  was  the  prepara- 
tory step  to  our  Lord's  public  ministry.2  And  He 
anticipates  His  final  triumph,  by  saying,  '  I  beheld 
Satan  as  lightning  fall  from  heaven/8  This  was  binding 
the  strong  man  preparatory  to  spoiling  his  goods.  It 
was  symbolized  in  the  exode  from  Egypt,  which  was 
effected  by  means  of  the  ten  plagues,  and  the  destruc- 
tion in  the  Red  Sea  of  Pharaoh  and  his  host,  consti- 
tuting a  redemption  of  power,  and  not  of  purchase, 
except  in  a  figurative  sense.  So  now  the  malign 
spiritual  powers  dominating  man,  and  rioting  among 
'the  wild  beasts'  of  appetite,  and  passion,  and  worldli- 
ness,  are  the  first  to  be  subdued,  in  securing  to  God  a 
spiritual  Israel  to  do  Him  service  in  this  world's  wil- 
derness. All  progress  begins  by  a  battle  with  error 
and  the  devil 

Nothing  can  be  conceived  more  imposing  than  the 
imagery  by  which  the  realm  of  spirits  is  represented 
to  us  in  the  Bible :  '  I  saw  the  Lord  sitting  upon  a 
throne,  high  and  lifted  up,  and  His  train  filled  tliB 
temple.  Above  it  stood  the  seraphim  :  each  one  had 
six  wings  ;  with  twain  he  covered  his  face,  and  with 
twain  he  covered  his  feet,  and  with  twain  he  did 
fly.  And  one  cried  unto  another,  and  said,  Holy,  holy, 
holy  is  the  Lord  God  of  hosts  :  the  whole  earth  is  full 
of  His  glory.  And  the  posts  of  the  door  moved  at 
the  voice  of  him  that  cried,  and  the  house  was  filled 
with  smoke/  The  effect  upon  the  prophet,  as  also 

* 1  John  iii.  8.         »  Matt  iv.  1-11  ;  Mark  L  13.        »  Luke  x.  18. 


The  Realm  of  Spirits.  63 

upon  Daniel  of  like  visions,  was  a  recoil  upon  self, 
withering  and  blighting, — the  latter  adding,  '  I  Daniel 
fainted,  and  was  sick  certain  days.'  But  Isaiah  ex- 
claims, '  Woe  is  me  !  for  I  am  undone ;  because  I  am  a 
man  of  unclean  lips,  and  I  dwell  in  the  midst  of  a  people 
of  unclean  lips  :  for  mine  eyes  have  seen  the  King, 
the  Lord  of  hosts.'  *  '  They  saw  the  God  of  Israel : 
and  there  was  under  His  feet  as  it  were  a  paved  work 
of  a  sapphire-stone,  and  as  it  were  the  body  of  heaven 
in  clearness.'2  The  visions  of  Ezekiel  and  John  com- 
bine attributes  of  power  and  glory  above  everything  to 
be  met  with  in  real  life.3  The  transfigured  Saviour, 
with  heavenly  glory  investing  Him,  outshone  the  sun, 
and  was  clothed  in  a  radiance  which  no  art  can  imitate.4 
And  the  words  which  Paul  heard  in  the  third  heavens 
exceeded  all  the  powers  of  earthly  speech.5  All  the 
mines  of  earth  cannot  supply  the  amount  of  gold  and 
precious  stones  brought  together  in  the  last  chapters  of 
Revelation  to  represent  the  New  Jerusalem.  Nor  is 
the  spirit-world  of  evil  represented  by  images  of  pain 
and  woe  less  extraordinary. 

Such  is  the  nature  of  the  world  of  which  the  human 
soul  is  the  tenant,  and  of  whose  influences,  for  good 
or  for  evil,  it  is  a  recipient.  In  reference  to  this 
capacity  of  spiritual  reception,  the  same  term  is  be- 
stowed upon  it  and  the  Spirit  of  God.  Ruach  in  the 
Old  Testament,  and  pneuma  in  the  New,  are,  as  we 
have  seen,  applied  both  to  man  and  to  God.  '  The 
pneuma!  says  Neander,  '  corresponds  to  the  divine 
pneuma  or  Holy  Spirit,  which  is  destined  and  adapted 

1  Isa.  vi.  1-5  ;  Dan.  viii.  27.  2  Ex.  xxiv.  10. 

8  Ezek.  i.  4-28  ;  Rev.  i.  12-16,  iv.  2-4. 

4  Matt.  xvii.  2  ;  Mark  ix.  3  ;  Acts  xxii.  6,  xxvi.  13. 

•  2  Cor.  xii.  2. 


64  Seed-Truths. 

to  receive  His  influences,  and  spread  them  through  the 
whole  of  human  nature/  This  is  the  Divine  Proceed- 
ing going  forth  from  the  Father  through  the  Son,  to 
operate  in  the  souls  of  His  people,  '  to  will  and  to  do 
according  to  His  good  pleasure,'  to  realize  heaven  in 
them,  and  at  the  same  time  brooding  upon  the  ele- 
ments of  nature,  to  reduce  the  two  kingdoms  to  a  unit 
in  the  person  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  He  is  Lord 
of  all.  All  power  in  heaven  and  earth  is  His. 

Graces  and  gifts  in  the  Church  are  the  divine  pneu- 
matika,  or  the  result  of  an  importation  from  the  spirit- 
realm,  and  not  an  exercise  of  natural  gifts,  whether 
inherent  or  acquired.  They  were  obtained  for  us  when 
Christ  ascended  up  on  high,  and  thus  reopened  com- 
munication between  heaven  and  the  soul  of  man.  And 
when  the  field  lacks  labourers,  He  sends  us  not  to  the 
schools  for  a  supply,  but  to  the  Lord  of  the  harvest,  to 
pray  that  He  would  send  forth  labourers.1  Spiritual 
power  is  what  the  world  needs  ;  no  other  can  explode 
its  errors  or  alleviate  its  woes.  And  the  channel  is 
open  for  its  influx ;  and  we  have  only  to  '  come  boldly 
unto  the  throne  of  grace,  that  we  may  obtain  mercy, 
and  find  grace  to  help  in  time  of  need.' 2 

Our  spiritual  apprehensions  are  subject  to  much  the 
same  laws  as  those  which  are  natural.  Ideas  of  taste 
and  ideas  of  sense  can  only  be  conceived  by  those 
who  have  the  taste  or  the  sense.  No  matter  how  in- 
tellectual we  may  be,  we  cannot  see  without  eyes  ;  no 
matter  how  finished  as  mathematicians,  we  cannot  ap- 
preciate art  and  poetry  without  a  feeling  for  thi'in. 
So  of  truths  from  the  realm  of  spirit.  Without  a  re- 
sponsive chord  in  us,  how  can  we  know  them  ?  '  The 
wind  bloweth  where  it  listeth,  and  thou  hearest  the 
1  Eph.  iv.  8  ;  Matt.  w.  38.  •  Heb.  iy.  16. 


The  Realm  of  Spirits.  65 

sound  thereof,  but  canst  not  tell  whence  it  cometh, 
and  whither  it  goeth :  so  is  every  one  that  is  born  of 
the  Spirit.' 1  It  is  necessarily  occult  to  one  who  has 
not  opened  his  mind  to  the  heavenly  breeze.  How  can 
he  speak  of  the  odours  of  paradise,  when  he  has  never 
inhaled  them  ? 

Impartations  from  the  spirit-realm  reveal  themselves, 
like  light  and  sound,  not  merely  by  their  own  force, 
but  by  that  force  as  responded  to  by  what  is  in  the 
man  himself,  as  the  breeze  is  responded  to  by  the 
vibrating  strings  of  the  harp  which  it  sets  in  motion. 
Does  not  the  muse  of  the  poet  act  in  the  same  manner  '* 
Images  from  without  kindle  the  poetic  feeling  within 
and  the  inspiration  is  partly  of  the  man,  and  partly  of 
the  influences  acting  upon  him.  Seeing  is  partly  of 
the  eye,  and  partly  of  the  light,  and  not  of  either  by 
itself.  So  is  it  with  all  spiritual  influence.  It  comes 
from  God,  but  takes  its  cast  from  our  minds,  whether 
as  penitence  for  sin,  faith  in  Christ,  joy  in  the  Holy 
Ghost,  supplication  in  the  Spirit,  a  gift  for  edifying 
others,  quiet  and  patient  endurance  under  suffering, 
the  practice  of  domestic  virtues  and  daily,  duties,  or  in 
any  other  form. 

In  all  cases  where  moral  characteristics  are  ascribed 
to  the  spirit,  more  is  meant  than  outward  virtue.  It 
supposes  a  divine  force  acting  through  the  soul,  to  give 
a  spiritual  and  heavenly  stamp  to  those  virtues,  or  to 
make  them  what  they  would  not  be  without  such  force, 
as  sunlight  makes  a  plant  what  it  would  not  be  in  the 
shade.  Doing  things  '  as  unto  God,  and  not  unto  men,'2 
may  not  materially  change  the  outward  form  of  the 
act,  but  its  spirit  how  different !  The  spirit  to  do 
things  as  unto  God  remains,  in  some  cases,  when  the 
1  John  iii.  8.  2  Eph.  vi.  5-8. 

E 


66  Seed-  Truths. 

actions  are  wholly  wanting,  or  are  directly  of  a  contrary 
character.  Peter's  crime,  in  not  only  neglecting  to 
defend  his  Master  under  trial,  but  in  actually  denying 
Him,  did  not  unsettle  the  spiritual  basis  of  love  and 
devotion  to  that  Master.  No ;  his  flowing  tears  testi- 
fied to  the  hold  which  his  Master  still  had  upon  his 
spiritual  affections.  On  the  contrary,  the  virtues  of 
which  the  Pharisee  perhaps  truthfully  boasted  in  his 
prayer,  were  still  worldly  and  unscriptural,  and  there- 
fore unacceptable.1 

The  term  spirit  is  added  to  a  virtue  or  a  vice,  to 
denote  actions  performed  from  a  good  or  an  evil  im- 
pulse from  the  spirit-world.  Hence  the  expressions, 
'  the  spirit  which  is  of  God,'  '  the  spirit  of  the  world/ 
'  spiritually  minded/  '  carnally  minded/  '  walking  in 
the  Spirit/  '  seducing  spirits/  '  Spirit  of  truth/  '  deceiv- 
ing spirits/  and  many  others.2  By  such  forms  of  ex- 
pression, the  inspired  writers  keep  constantly  before 
our  minds  the  currents  of  influence  inflowing  from  the 
world  of  spirits,  to  give  a  good  or  an  evil  direction  to 
our  lives.  The  idea  is,  that  we  have  a  nature  con- 
stantly acted  upon  by  a  spiritual  as  well  as  a  natural 
world,  and  that  we  are  to  regulate  our  conduct  in  re- 
ference to  this  fact.  We  are  to  breathe  and  pant  and 
long  after  God,  but  to  resist  the  devil  that  he  may  flee 
from  us. 

The  spiritual  laws  of  association  are  like  the  natural. 
Like  affiliates  with  like.  Good  angels  cluster  round 
the  good,  and  unclean  spirits  around  the  unclean. 
What  we  are  and  what  we  do  is  never  secret,  but 
under  the  eye  of  heavenly  spectators.  '  There  is 

i  Luki-xviii.  11. 

«  1  Cor.  ii.  12 ;  1  Tim.  iv.  1  ;  2  Cor.  xii.  18 ;  1  Cor.  xii.  10 ;  Rom. 
viiL  6. 


The  Realm  of  Spirits.  6  ^ 

nothing  hid,  which  shall  not  be  manifested;  neither 
was  anything  secret,  but  that  it  should  come  abroad.' 
'  A  great  cloud  of  heavenly  witnesses  ever  encompasses 
us,' — a  cloud  more  imposing  by  far  than  ever  looked 
down  from  a  Eoman  amphitheatre.1  Our  evils  are 
enacted  against  an  ever-resisting  heavenly  force,  and 
our  hearts  are  hardened  by  the  process,  as  Pharaoh's 
was  by  opposing  himself  to  God,  and  as  the  Jews  were 
by  withstanding  the  spiritual  power  that  wrought  with 
Christ  and  His  apostles.  The  intenser  the  influence 
from  above,  the  more  rapid  the  process  of  spiritual 
decay  in  us,  as  with  a  carcase  under  a  torrid  sun.  Our 
power  to  be  wicked  is  proportioned  to  our  means  of 
spiritual  influence.2  Tares  derive  their  baneful  luxuri- 
ance from  the  same  soil  that  nourishes  the  fat  of  the 
kidneys  of  wheat. 

With  a  hint  to  those  who  would  be  restored  to 
communication  with  heaven,  we  will  conclude  this 
chapter.  This  is  to  be  done  by  turning  away  from 
fleshly  ideas,  to  act  upon  the  truths  of  faith.  '  Enter 
into  thy  closet :  and  when  thou  hast  shut  the  door, 
pray  to  thy  Father  who  is  in  secret ;  and  thy  Father, 
which  seeth  in  secret,  shall  reward  thee  openly.'3 
Communion  with  spirit  must  begin  by  shutting  out 
worldly  influences.  Truths  of  faith,  truths  of  prayer, 
truths  of  the  divine  law,  truths  of  Christ  and  of  fol- 
lowing Him,  truths  of  the  gracious  promises,  truths  of 
the  inner  life,  truths  of  spiritual  worship,  truths  of 
brotherly  love,  truths  of  general  charity  and  benevo- 
lence, truths  from  searching  the  Scriptures,  and  com- 
paring spiritual  things  with  spiritual,  never  open  upon 
us,  except  in  a  state  of  abstraction  from  the  thoughts 
and  feelings  which  dominate  our  minds  as  worldly 

1  Mark  iv.  22  ;  Heb.  xii,  1.          2  John  xv.  22.  3  Matt.  vL  6. 


68  Seed-Truths. 

men.  This  is  coming  out  from  the  world,  and  locking 
the  door  behind  you.  Such  a  course,  persevered  in 
with  honest  intent,  will  cause  heaven  to  open  upon 
thy  soul,  and  Jesus  to  appear  standing  on  the  right 
band  of  God.  Try  it,  reader,  try  iL 


CHAPTEB 
SPIRIT  IN  INSTITUTIONS. 

WE  will  here  repeat  ourselves,  to  make  sure  of 
being  understood.  Soul  in  Hebrew  is  the 
man  as  connected  with  flesh  on  the  one  hand,  and 
spirit  on  the  other.  From  the  one  he  derives  natural 
ideas,  and  from  the  other  spiritual :  the  man  is  dis- 
tinct from  both.  He  is  not  sense,  nor  is  he  spirit. 
If  he  were  without  the  body  and  its  senses,  he  would 
still  be  a  man ;  and  the  same  would  be  true  if  he  had 
no  spiritual  apprehensions.  Dives  in  hell  had  neither 
bodily  senses  nor  true  apprehensions  of  God,  and  yet 
his  personal  power  of  knowing  and  suffering  remained, 
and  his  natural  ideas  of  family  relations  were  still 
present  to  his  mind. 

Not  only  is  the  man  distinct  from  sense  and  spirit, 
but  from  the  objects  with,  which  they  render  him 
conversant.  He  is  distinct  from  what  he  sees-  in  the 
natural  and  in  the  spiritual  world.  The  one  he  sees 
through  the  body,  the  other  through  the  spiritual 
apprehension  with  which  he  is  endowed.  Spirit  in 
himself  is  his  power  to  receive  spiritual  truths,  as  sense 
is  his  power  to  receive  natural  truths.  Such,  it  seems 
to  the  writer,  must  be  the  view  which  one  will  arrive  at 
who  carefully  collates  and  compares  the  facts,  symbols, 
and  statements  of  the  Bible  on  this  subject.  The  soul 
as  a  nature  is  a  unit,  of  capacity  for  influx  from  two 
worlds,  with  duality  of  results  to  character. 


70  Seed-  Truths. 

The  realm  of  spirits  is  more  populous  than  that  of 
nature,  as  would  appear  from  the  oft-repeated  designa- 
tion, '  the  Lord  of  Hosts/  and  also  from  the  mention 
of  angels  '  innumerable/  and  the  devils  in  one  man, 
whose  '  name  was  Legion,  because  they  were  many/ 
Christ  in  the  garden  speaks  of  being  able  to  command 
more  than  twelve  legions  of  angels.1  It  is  not  only 
more  populous,  but  more  powerful  than  nature,  just  as 
soul  is  than  body,  and  God  than  the  universe.  Spirit 
acts  from  within,  matter  from  without ;  spirit  is  the 
sap-current,  matter  the  efflorescence.  The  one  works 
out  its  results  not  only  through  individual  souls,  but 
by  aggregating  them  into  institutions,  bound  by  an 
occult  force,  to  make  it  next  to  impossible  to  detach 
them.  They  stick  together  like  the  filings  of  magnet- 
ized iron.  Paganism,  Romanism,  Judaism,  Islainism, 
and  Christianity  are  the  general  terms  by  which  they 
are  called.  As  existing  in  most  nations,  they  have  a 
politico-religious  character,  enforcing  their  decrees  by 
the  sword  of  two  worlds,  or  by  social  ostracism. 

The  inspired  writers  regard  them  as  the  outworking 
of  spiritual  forces,  good  or  evil,  in  which  they  are 
more  logical,  as  well  as  more  truly  inspired,  than  those 
who  ascribe  them  to  climatic  influences.  If  they  owe 
their  existence  to  differences  of  climate,  why  does  not 
the  same  climate  produce  in  all  ages  the  same  religion  ? 
Why  has  not  the  Druid  worship  been  perpetuated  in 
l;md  ?  Why  are  not  Bel  and  Nebo  still  worshipped 
on  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates,  and  Isis  and  Osiris  on 
those  of  the  Nile  ?  Why  does  not  Jupiter  still  thunder 
from  Ida,  and  rule  from  the  Capitoline  Hill  ? 

There  is   something  more   enduring   than    earthly 

1  Heb.  xii.  22  ;  Luke  viii  30  ;  Matt.  xxvi.  53  ;  Dan.  yii.  10  ; 
Eev.  T.  11. 


Spirit  in  Institutions.  J  i 

forces  in  these  religious  divisions.  So  far  as  man's 
nature  is  affected  by  food  or  climate,  it  admits  of  an 
easy  transition  from  one  condition  to  another.  He  can 
live  within  the  tropics  or  polar  circle,  on  the  diet  of 
Peru  or  Greenland  ;  but  does  bis  religion  undergo 
like  change  ?  When  a  thought,  or  feeling,  or  usage 
takes  possession  of  a  people,  as  sanctioned  by  God, 
and  binding  their  conscience,  they  take  it  wherever 
they  go.  Who  can  persuade  the  Hindoo  out  of  his 
caste,  or -the  Chinese  out  of  his  ancestral  worship? 
Who  can  unsettle  the  Arab's  faith  in  Allah  and  His 
prophet  ?  How  are  two  hundred  million  Eomanists 
to  be  dissuaded  from  picture  and  saint  worship,  or 
reliance  on  the  priesthood  for  the  pardon  of  sin  ? 
'  Has  a  nation  changed  its  gods,  which  are  no  gods  V 1 
The  gospel  assumes  that  the  change  may  be  effected, 
though  not  by  education,  not  by  new  climatic  influ- 
ences, not  by  any  earthly  power  or  appliance,  but  only 
by  the  quickening  Spirit.  '  The  gospel  is  the  power 
of  God  unto  salvation/  2  As  the  resistance  to  be  over- 
come is  spiritual  power  in  high  places,  it  must  be 
assailed  by  a  spiritual  force.  You  may  break  a  rock 
with  gunpowder,  but  to  change  the  currents  of  human 
thought,  feeling,  and  desire,  quite  another  power  must 
be  brought  into  requisition.  '  Tarry  ye  in  Jerusalem, 
till  ye  be  endued  with  power  from  on  high.'  3 

There  is  behind  the  reasoning  faculties,  and  the 
qualities  which  education  affects,  an  influence  directing 
and  determining  the  ideas  and  conduct  of  a  people. 
In  the  Indian  and  the  Hottentot  are  not  only  pecu- 
liarities of  complexion  and  conformation,  but  also  of 
thought  and  feeling,  of  which  no  training  can  fully 
dispossess  them.  I  once  inquired  of  a  Jew  how  it  was 
1  Jer.  ii.  11.  *  Rom.  L  16.  3  Luke  xxiv.  49. 


7  2  Seed-  Truths. 

that  they  gave  their  children  so  uniformly  their  own 
peculiar  cast  of  religious  thought  '  Oh/  he  said, '  it  is 
our  nature.'  Minds  thus  shaped  cast  their  reasoning 
in  the  same  mould ;  and  the  libraries  of  Europe  groan 
under  Jesuitical  tomes,  bringing  all  argument,  all  logic, 
all  reason,  to  the  defence  of  the  Roman  type  of 
Christianity.  The  Hindoo,  Chinese,  and  Mohammedan 
are  equally  ingenious  in  the  defence  of  their  several 
systems.  Not  that  truth  is  thus  contradictory,  nor 
reason  incapable  of  discovering  it,  but  there  is  a  dis- 
guising influence  in  such  cases  to  darken  and  pervert 
the  mind.  Something  besides  reason  and  truth  deter- 
mines its  convictions. 

How  are  we  to  account  for  disguising  influences  of 
the  kind  taking  possession  of  races  and  aggregations  of 
men,  and  perpetuating  themselves  from  age  to  age  ? 
Can  any  better  reason  for  it  be  given,  than  those 
spiritual  agencies  to  which  the  inspired  writers  refer 
them  ?  They  represent  a  spiritual  being,  under  the 
form  of  a  serpent,  as  having  a  hand  in  bringing  our 
race  into  its  present  guilty  and  suffering  state.  A 
spiritual  agency  of  an  opposite  character  set  on  foot 
the*  patriarchal  and  Mosaic  worship,  with  all  its 
histories,  institutions,  and  prophecies,  culminating  in 
the  incarnation  and  pentecostal  baptism.  A  like 
agency  brought  the  united  descendants  of  Noah  into 
relations  to  each  other,  by  the  confusion  of  tongues,  to 
compel  their  dispersion  as  the  seeding  of  races  and 
nations,  and  fixing  the  bound  of  their  habitation. l  In 
these  cases  trains  of  influence  were  set  on  foot,  deter- 
mining the  character  and  condition  of  man  upon  earth, 
as  also  the  specific  form  and  location  of  national 
institutions. 


Spirit  in  Institutions.  73 

Though  Babylon  was  a  great  outward  fact,  with  a 
history  of  three  thousand  years,  yet  it  had  a  mystical 
meaning  with  the  prophets,  representing  ideas  rather 
than  material  interests.  The  ancient  cry,  that  Babylon 
is  fallen,  was  taken  up  by  John  in  Eevelation,  long 
after  the  old  city  had  ceased  to  rule  the  nations.1  It 
was  not,  therefore,  the  fall  of  a  material  city  which 
was  so  solemnly  heralded,  but  of  errors  and  delusions 
corrupting  and  debasing  the  nations.  It  was  the 
breaking  up  of  a  nest  of  satanic  powers,  called 
'  Mystery,  Babylon  the  great,  the  mother  of  harlots 
and  abominations  of  the  earth.'2 

Whatever  interpretation  may  be  put  upon  '  the  great 
red  dragon,  having  seven  heads  and  ten  horns/  or 
upon  the  transfer  of  '  his  power,  and  his  seat,  and  great 
authority  to  the  beast  with  seven  heads  and  ten  horns/ 
and  ten  crowns,  and  '  upon  his  heads  the  names  of 
blasphemy/  one  thing  is  certain,  these  are  symbols  of 
spiritual  power  or  influence  embodied  in  institutions 
determining  the  faith  and  practice  of  mankind.3  Eome 
pagan  and  Eome  papal  are  clearly  referred  to,  the 
former  merging  its  authority,  its  ideas,  and  its  seven- 
hilled  city  into  the  latter,  which  it  still  longs  to  hold 
with  the  same  eagerness  as  ever  to  subject  the  nations 
to  its  power.  Thus  the  Babylon  of  inspiration  is  more 
than  a  city, — it  is  an  aggregation  of  spiritual  errors 
and  influences,  holding  vast  masses  of  men  subject  to 
its  power,  and  making  war  upon  truth  and  its  advo- 
cates. 

The  idea  of  representing  unseen  forces  is  not  con- 
lined  to  the  true  worshippers  of  God, — it  is  also  enter- 
tained by  idolaters.  The  apotheosis  of  the  ancient 

*  Isa.  xxi.  9  ;  Rev.  xviii.  2.  •  Bey.  xyii.  5. 

•  Bev.  xii.  3,  xiii.  1,  2. 


74  Seed-  Truths. 

heroes  consisted  in  transferring  them  to  heaven  and 
identifying  them  with  the  stars,  to  act  as  patrons  of 
the  nations  and  institutions  with  which  they  were  con- 
nected on  earth.  Nimrod,  as  personating  Babylon, 
became  Lucifer  the  morning  star ;  and  several  of  the 
planets  and  signs  of  the  zodiac  are  still  called  after  these 
ancient  gods  and  heroes.  The  Papacy,  as  inheriting 
these  ancient  corruptions,  canonizes  its  saints,  and  offers 
them  its  worship.  These  deified  heroes  and  saints  are 
no  doubt  in  imitation  of  the  real  powers  which  the 
Scriptures  represent  as  influencing  nations  and  institu- 
tions from  the  realm  of  spirits.  The  divine  right  of 
kings  is  an  offshoot  of  this  idea.  Governments  claim 
a  ghostly  origin  and  authority  to  strengthen  their  hold 
upon  the  superstition  of  their  subjects ;  and  true 
patriotism  no  doubt  includes  a  sentiment  of  piety  to 
God  as  well  as  loyalty  to  human  institutions. 

The  Bible  claims  for  the  cause  of  truth  and  righteous- 
ness the  guardianship  of  Almighty  God.  Angels  as 
well  as  men  are  its  servitors  and  its  advocates.  The 
covenant  with  Abraham  was  not  only  the  result  of  a 
divine  call,  but  was  brought  to  mind  at  the  burning 
bush,  ages  after,  when  a  large  portion  of  the  people  to 
whom  it  related  had  ceased  to  hope  for  its  fulfilment. 
'  I  have  heard  the  groanings  of  the  children  of  Israel, 
whom  the  .Egyptians  keep  in  bondage;  and  I  have 
remembered  my  covenant.'1  What  followed  in  God's 
dealings  with  that  people  in  after  ages  is  over  and  over 
ii  represented  as  in  pursuance  of  that  covenant, 
the  whole  extraordinary  history  being  merely  the  out- 
working of  spiritual  forces,  the  embodiment  of  heavenly 
ideas. 

When,  the  literal  descendants  of  Abraham  finally 
'•bit* 


Spirit  in  Institutions.  75 

rejected  God  in  the  person  of  His  Son,  saying,  '  His 
blood  be  upon  us  and  our  children/1  a  spirit  of  unbelief 
took  possession  of  the  nation,  ruling  them  to  this  day 
as  a  malign  spiritual  power,  upon  which  arguments 
make  as  little  impression  as  feathers  upon  a  granite 
column.  Some  are  indeed  plucked  as  brands  from  the 
burning,  but  not  in  sufficient  numbers  to  affect  the 
solid  framework  of  unbelief  and  materialism  in  which 
the  masses  are  encased. 

It  would  almost  seem  as  if  the  dupes  of  a  great 
delusion  on  earth,  as  Paganism,  Eomanism,  Judaism, 
and  Islamism,  carried  their  delusion  into  another  life, 
to  react  an  influence  upon  those  whom  they  left 
behind,  confirmatory  of  their  error.  If  Moses  and 
Elijah  interested  themselves  in  our  Lord's  passion,2  may 
not  evil  spirits  still  share  in  the  evils  among  men  ? 
Has  the  light  of  eternity  cured  them  of  the  passions 
and  ideas  that  ruled  them  on  earth  ?  And  if  cured, 
why  are  they  still  under  the  wrath  of  God  ?  No  ;  the 
idea  of  continual  currents  of  influence  from  the  spirit- 
world  to  make  men  what  they  are,  or  to  keep  them  so, 
is  clearly  held  forth  in  the  pages  of  divine  inspiration. 
As  a  general  rule,  the  greater  the  number  of  dead 
heretics,  the  greater  the  power  of  the  living  heresy. 
This  is  not  always  so,  especially  when  God  vouchsafes  a 
special  divine  influence  to  recover  men  to  truth,  as  under 
His  apostles,  under  the  Eeformers,  under  the  zealous 
spiritual  labourers  in  revivals  and  missions  during  the 
past  hundred  years,  and  on  like  occasions.  But  even 
in  such  cases  there  is  an  instant  rallying  to  perpetuate 
the  old  delusions,  even  if  they  are  compelled  to  take' 
on  new  forms,  as  the  Paganism  of  Rome  reappeared  in 
the  Papacy.  Various  errors  corrupted  the  Eeformers, 
1  Matt.  xxvu.  25.  2  Luke  ix.  30,  31. 


76  Seed-  Truths. 

and  their  work  was  counteracted  by  Jesuitism ;  and  even 
now  there  are  causes  constantly  at  work  to  vitiate  and 
corrupt  our  revivals  and  our  missions.  How  far  these 
counteracting  forces  are  purely  earthly,  or  an  emanation 
of  the  spirit-world  of  evil,  it  is  difficult  to  determine. 
And  one  who  impartially  reads  the  life  of  Loyola,  and 
the  dark  and  damaging  achievements  of  his  Jesuitical 
institution,  can  scarcely  fail  of  being  impressed  with 
the  working  of  malign  agencies  more  than  human. 
In  such  cases  it  may  be  well  said,  '  Woe  unto  the 
inhabitants  of  the  earth  and  sea !  for  the  devil  is 
come  down  unto  you,  having  great  wrath.' l 

In  Daniel  the  great  powers  of  the  world  are  described 
as  the  outworking  of  spiritual  agencies.  The  Grecian 
and  Roman  empires  were  thus  presented  to  the  vision 
of  the  prophet  long  before  their  establishment.  Michael 
stood  up  for  the  chosen  people ;  and  Gabriel  was  delayed 
in  answering  Daniel's  prayer  by  the  prince  of  the  king- 
dom of  Persia,  or  by  a  spiritual  personation  of  that 
power.2  Cyrus,  the  founder  of  the  Medo-Persian  mon- 
archy and  restorer  of  the  Jews,  was  foretold,  ages  before 
he  was  born,  as  destined  to  fulfil  a  divine  commission 
of  which  he  was  unconscious.  '  I  girded  thee,  though 
thou  hast  not  known  me/ 8  His  reign  and  his  con- 
quests were  in  fulfilment  of  the  counsels  of  eternity 
and  of  promptings  from  the  spirit-realm. 

The  establishment  and  work  of  Christianity  were 
more  the  result  of  spiritual  than  of  earthly  agencies. 
An  angel  announced  the  birth  of  John  the  Baptist  and 
of  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  Angels  hymned  the  new-born 
Saviour  to  the  shepherds,  and  the  wise  men  were  mira- 
culously directed  to  His  cradle.  An  angel  strengthened 

l  Rev.  xil  12. 

•Dan.  TiL  6,  yiiL  21,  22,  ?iL  7,  23,  z.  18V  zil  L          f  lav.  xlv.  ft. 


Spirit  in  Institutions.  77 

Him  in  the  garden,  and  announced  His  resurrection. 
Two  angels  appeared  at  His  ascension.  An  angel 
released  Peter  from  prison,  and  stood  by  Paul  in  his 
shipwreck.  An  angel  opened  the  way  to  the  conver- 
sion of  Cornelius,  and  the  preaching  of  the  gospel 
among  the  Gentiles.1  Besides,  from  the  promise  in  the 
garden  of  Eden,  that '  the  seed  of  the  woman  should 
bruise  the  serpent's  head/  to  the  setting  up  of  Christ's 
kingdom,  all  the  particulars  of  the  event  were  arranged 
in  heaven.  They  were  made  known  to  the  prophets, 
were  wrought  into  symbol  and  into  history ;  and  thus 
one  institution  at  least — Christianity — is  the  cropping 
out  of  divine  and  heavenly  powers.  The  spirit  of  just 
men  made  perfect  took  part  in  the  work  on  the  moun- 
tain of  transfiguration ;  and  at  the  crucifixion  *  the 
graves  were  opened;  and  many  bodies  of  the  saints 
which  slept  arose,  and  came  out  of  their  graves  after 
His  resurrection,  and  went  into  the  holy  city,  and 
appeared  unto  many.'  2  And  if  nothing  exists  of  the 
kind  on  the  part  of  malign  spiritual  powers,  it  is  the 
only  case,  I  believe,  in  which  God's  genuine  working 
is  not  counterfeited. 

These  are  great  facts  in  pursuance  of  the  inspired 
view  of  the  spirit- world  as  near  and  in  constant  com- 
munication with  men  on  earth,  for  good  or  for  evil. 
When  an  evil  spirit  entrenches  itself  in  an  institution, 
how  hard  to  dispossess  him  !  Argument  and  reasoning 
are  to  him  what  the  green  withs  were  in  the  hands  of 
Samson.  Will  arguments  persuade  Niagara  out  of  its 
course  ?  We  call  it  prejudice,  education,  habit ;  but  the 
Bible  calls  it  Belial,  '  the  spirit  of  whoredoms,'  '  that  old 

1  Luke  i.  11-35,  ii.  8-14  ;  Matt,  il  1,  2,  xxviii.  2-7  ;  Luke  xxii.  43; 
Acts  i.  10,  11,  xii.  7-10,  xxvii.  23. 
8  Matt  xxvii.  52,  53. 


78  Seed-Truths. 

serpent,  the  Devil,  and  Satan,  which  deceiveth  the  whole 
world :  he  was  cast  out  into  the  earth,  and  his  angels 
were  cast  out  with  him/1  Here  they  hold  carnival 
Their  work  may  be  gradual  and  stealthy,  for  '  he  de- 
ceiveth them  that  dwell  upon  the  earth  ;'2  but  when 
once  entrenched  in  the  ideas  and  institutions  of  a 
nation  or  a  race,  no  power  but  that  of  God  Himself,  as 
one  stronger  than  he,  can  drive  him  out. 

Christ  never  contemplated  the  conversion  of  the 
world  otherwise  than  by  an  organized  spiritual  force  of 
greater  potency  and  power.  'He  that  is  in  you  is 
greater  than  he  that  is  in  the  world.' 8  Christianity  is 
not  contesting  the  palm  of  learning,  diplomacy,  money, 
organization,  or  of  worldly  power,  but  of  spiritual  truth, 
holy  living,  heavenly  hope,  and  resurrection  power. 
As  the  kingdom  of  heaven  among  men,  it  is  in  conflict 
with  'the  rulers  of  the  darkness  of  this  world,  and  with 
spiritual  wickedness  in  high  places.'  * 

Jesus,  in  establishing  His  kingdom  among  men, 
wrote  nothing,  published  nothing,  organized  neither 
senate  nor  army,  built  no  palace,  assembled  no  court, 
erected  neither  column  nor  cathedral,  and  resorted  to 
no  single  expedient  suggested  by  human  wisdom  for 
the  achievement  of  such  a  result.  What  did  He  do  ? 
"Why,  He  simply  gathered  around  Him  a  few  personal 
followers,  of  no  worldly  pretensions,  with  whom  He 
lived  and  conversed  long  enough  to  thoroughly  imbue 
them  with  His  own  ideas,  and  with  His  new  and  hea- 
venly life.  Trusting  then  to  divine  power  to  accrue  to 
them  at  His  death,  He  left  them,  and  returned  to  His 
i'iilher.  He  thus  made  them  what  they  had  no  power 

1  Rev.  xiL  9.  *  Rev.  xiii.  14. 

8  1  John  iv.  4 ;  Luke  xxiv.  49 ;  Acts  i.  6. 
4  Ki.h.  vi.  12. 


Spirit  In  Institutions.  79 

to  be,  and  did  with  them  what  they  had  no  power  to 
do.  The  Holy  Spirit,  restored  to  His  ruling  in  their 
nature,  according  to  the  original  type  of  man's  creation, 
was  the  sole  efficiency  in  that  institution  which  we  call 
Christianity.  He  was  joint  witness  with  them  of  the 
resurrection ;  He  endowed  them  for  the  offices  of  the 
Church ; .  He  sanctioned  the  work  of  conversion  among 
the  Gentiles ;  He  qualified  Paul  for  this  particular 
vocation  ;  He  descended  upon  the  disciples  at  Ephesus  ; 
He  separated  Barnabas  and  Saul;  He  forewarned  the 
apostles  of  danger,  and  directed  their  preaching  in  one 
place,  but  hindered  it  in  another ;  He  gave  power  to 
their  words,  and  wrought  mightily  in  them ;  He  wit- 
nessed to  their  conscience  and  to  believers ;  He  gave 
them  inward  joy  in  all  their  tribulations.1  How  it  is 
possible  that,  with  such  a  record  running  throughout, 
Christianity  should  have  been  regarded  as  a  great 
worldly  organization  like  the  Papacy,  or  anything  of 
the  kind,  is  passing  strange.  It  only  shows  how  hard 
it  is  for  human  nature  to  conceive  or  conserve  things 
spiritual  and  heavenly. 

Are  not  the  laws  of  Christian  progress  the  same  now 
as  ever  ?  Can  we  hope  for  a  rapid  multiplication  of 
conversions,  except  by  means  of  a  sanctified  Church  ? 
Must  it  not  be  by  men  and  women  swayed  by  an  in- 
fluence from  above,  like  fields  of  grain  by  summer 
winds  ?  No  other  influence  can  produce  conversions 
worth  having.  The  toys  of  papal  worship  may  attract 
an  ignorant  people,  but  cannot  improve  their  spiritual 
condition.  Protestant  schools,  books,  tracts,  periodicals, 
learning,  science,  agriculture,  art,  civilisation,  or  states- 
manship, may  be  a  means  to  the  work,  but  never  can 

1  Acts  ii.  4,  vi.  3,  ix.  17,  x.  44,  xix.  6,  xiii.  2,  xx.  28,  xx.  23,  xvi. 
6-10;  Col.  ii.  29 ;  Kom.  viii.  16,  ix.  1  ;  2  Cor.  vii.  4. 


8o  Seed-  Truths. 

be  a  power  for  accomplishing  it,  except  as  wielded 
by  the  Holy  Spirit.  The  Bible  itself  can  do  nothing 
except  as  'the  sword  of  the  Spirit.'  A  kingdom  of 
heaven  among  men  can  only  live  and  grow  by  heavenly 
powei. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

SPIRIT  IN  MORALS. 

THE  question  now  before  us  is  as  to  the  effect  of 
spirit  and  the  spiritual  upon  the  theory  and 
practice  of  morality.  Have  they  anything  to  do  with 
conscience  ?  This  is  a  question  which  concerns  the 
connection  of  morality  with  religion.  That  there  is  a 
very  important  connection  between  them,  I  believe  is 
generally  conceded. 

In  the  Bible  view,  morality  is  religion,  and  religion 
is  morality.  The  two  are  not  distinguished  from  each 
other.  All  right  thinking,  feeling,  and  doing  commences 
with  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  which  is  the  beginning  of 
wisdom.  Virtue  inheres  in  piety,  and  piety  in  virtue, 
as  light  and  heat  in  the  sunbeams.  Neither  can  exist 
in  its  integrity  without  the  other.  A  vicious  pious 
man  and  a  pious  vicious  man  are  a  contradiction  in 
terms. 

There  are  indeed  conservative  qualities  among  men 
which  pass  for  virtues,  with  which  religion  has  little 
directly  to  do.  These  the  inspired  writers  recognise  as 
a  natural  conscience,  as  I  have  before  said,  leading  men 
to  do  without  the  law  things  contained  in  the  law.1 
Under  their  influence  civilisation  attains  in  some  cases 
to  great  worldly  pre-eminence,  yet  it  leaves  the  nations 
without  God,  and  in  a  state  of  great  material  debase- 

1  Koin.  ii.  14,  1$. 
F 


82  Seed- Truths. 

ment.  '  Man  being  in  honour  abideth  not :  he  is  like 
the  beasts  that  perish.'1  His  very  morality  is  more 
bestial  than  spiritual,  more  earthly  than  heavenly.  Two 
classes,  the  opposite  of  each  other  in  culture,  are  espe- 
cially in  this  state  of  abstraction  from  spiritual  truth, — 
the  lowest  savages,  and  some  of  our  most  scientific  men. 
It  is  doubted  by  some  whether  the  Caffres  have  any 
spiritual  ideas ;  and  our  savans  are  in  many  cases  so 
occupied  with  material  cause  and  effect  as  to  lose  sight 
of  God  in  His  universe.  They  are  atheists,  pantheists, 
or  anything  rather  than  believers  in  things  spiritual. 
Still  the  savages  are  not  without  conservative  qualities  ; 
and  our  scientific  atheists  are  not  without  private  and 
patriotic  virtues.  The  Sadducees  denied  the  existence 
of  both  angel  and  spirit,2  and  yet  they  had  an  honour- 
able position  among  the  Jews,  and  were  no  doubt  men 
of  ordinarily  good  morals  for  the  age  in  which  they 
lived. 

It  must  be  conceded,  however,  that  comparatively 
few  are  destitute  of  spiritual  ideas  and  influences  of 
some  sort  and  to  some  extent.  As  in  the  coldest  days 
there  is  enough  of  the  principle  of  heat  to  preserve 
vegetable  and  animal  life,  so  there  may  be  the  working 
of  spirit  even  in  those  who  seem  the  most  destitute  of 
it.  The  great  majority  of  men,  to  say  the  least,  are 
influenced  in  their  beliefs  and  actions  by  what  they 
conceive  as  lying  beyond  the  range  of  sense  or  of 
the  natural  world.  Whether  true  or  false,  it  is  all  the 
same  as  to  the  fact  of  such  an  influence.  The  Jews 
h;ul  no  conscience  against  crucifying  Christ;  but  thc-ir 
notions  of  religious  purity  restrained  them  from  entering 
the  judgment-hall  of  Pilate,  '  that  they  might  eat  the 
passover.'  *  The  Arab  would  be  self-condemned  if  he 
>  Pa.  xlix.  12.  »  Acts  xxiii.  8.  »  John  xviii.  28. 


Spirit  in  Morals.  83 

neglected  his  daily  prayers,  but  not  for  stealing  all  he 
can  lay  his  hands  on.  The  IJoman  robbers  will  murder 
without  remorse,  but  would  think  heaven  shut  against 
them  if  they  did  not  pay  their  daily  adorations  to  an 
image  of  the  Virgin.  Who  will  say  that  perverted 
ideas  of  spiritual  realities  have  nothing  to  do  in  such 
cases  ? 

The  most  absurd  icjeas  of  God  and  the  unseen  world 
are  so  potent  in  some  cases,  as  to  produce  a  total  dis- 
regard to  life  and  its  comforts.  The  ^Hindoo  widow 
prefers  to  burn  with  her  dead  husband,  rather  than  live 
a  queen  in  a  second  marriage.  The  anchorite  starves 
himself  in  the  midst  of  abundance,  and  makes  a  con- 
science of  living  in  rags  and  filth  to  gain  heaven.  Who 
will  say  that  spiritual  ideas,  such  as  they  are,  have  no 
force  in  such  cases  ?  Religion  is  the  great  power  in 
shaping  our  moral  convictions,  and  achieves  things  im- 
possible to  the  cold  calculations  of  reason.  Moral  ideas 
and  impulses,  shaped  and  directed  by  religion,  figure 
largely  in  art,  architecture,  literature,  and  social  orga- 
nization. They  are  the  greatest  forces  in  history.  They 
direct  the  expenditure  of  millions  of  money.  They 
marshal  armies,  spirit  onward  the  deadly  onset,  strew 
the  earth  with  bones,  and  rear  to  the  dead  their  proud 
mausoleums.  The  temples  and  pyramids,  surviving  the 
wreck  of  the  ancient  world,  are  monuments  to  religious 
convictions  of  duty  and  the  hope  of  immortality.  The 
iron  caste  of  India,  the  savage  worship  of  the  red  man, 
who  ensures  means  for  the  chase  in  the  hunting-grounds 
of  the  Great  Spirit  by  burying  with  his  dead  brother 
his  bow  and  arrow,  and  the  undying  semi-atheism  of 
the  Chinese,  have  still  enough  of  the  spiritual  in  them 
to  hold  the  living  generations.  Such  is  man  in  all  the 
phases  of  his  varient  life.  If  doing  things  as  right  out 


84  Seed-Truths. 

of  regard  to  the  unseen  powers,  or  posthumous  expecta- 
tions, be  religion,  how  hard  to  go  beyond  its -influence  ! 

Must  not  facts  like  these  be  accepted  as  an  assurance 
of  objective  reality  ?  Are  the  thousand  and  one  failures 
of  reason  and  science  any  evidence  against  objective 
truth  ?  Is  not  the  power  to  fly,  to  swim,  to  walk,  and 
the  constant  endeavour  of  these  exercises,  pretty  good 
evidence  of  air,  water,  and  earth,  to  perform  them  in  ? 
So,  as  men  take  to  spiritual  ideas  of  some  sort,  as  birds 
to  air,  anot  fish  to  water,  and  quadrupeds  to  land,  how 
can  we  doubt  the  objective  reality  of  a  spiritual  uni- 
verse ?  We  may  make  a  thousand  mistakes  as  to  its 
nature,  as  we  do  in  reasoning,  but  that  cannot  unsettle 
the  truth. 

Bat  why  reason,  when  we  have  the  safer  guide  of 
men  divinely  inspired  ?  Their'  theory  of  morality  is, 
that  we  exist  in  the  twofold  relation  of  flesh  and 
spirit,  connecting  us  with  nature  on  the  one  hand,  and 
with  a  spiritual  world  on  the  other,  with  free  powers  of 
action  to  follow  the  leading  of  the  one  or  the  other  at 
our  option.  And  as  spirit  obliges  us  by  its  very 
nature  to  obey  its  dictates,  or  God  rather  than  man,  it 
imposes  the  corresponding  obligation  of  subordinating 
the  flesh  to  His  ruling.  Here  is  the  principle  of  duty 
on  which  all  laws  of  duty  are  founded  ;  and  what  is 
morality  but  the  doctrine  of  duty  ?  A  being  with 
powers  so  opposite  as  appetite  and  conscience,  the  one 
to  be  subordinated,  and  the  other  to  be  obeyed,  must 
of  necessity  have  a  battle  of  temptations  for  the  exer- 
cise of  his  virtue,  and  the  development  of  his  possible 
excellences.  We  can  conceive  no  state  wherein  this 
necessity  does  not  exist,  except  that  which  arises  from 
coming  out  of  the  conflict,  as  our  Lord  did,  to  be 
crowned  with  &lory.  Confirmation  in  holiness  is  not 


Spirit  in  Morals.  85 

the  first  stage  in  such  an  existence,  as  it  was  not  in 
Adam,  but  the  reward  of  the  conqueror  in  temptation. 

Appetite  tends  to  unrestrained  indulgence ;  and  to 
limit  it  within  due  bounds,  under  the  spirit's  imperial 
dictation,  is  the  duty  imposed  upon  man,  to  put  his 
loyalty  and  his  determination  to  the  proof.  Nor  is  an 
outward  tempter  necessary  to  create  the  trial.  Indeed, 
a  devil  could  no  more  tempt  a  man  than  a  stone,  with- 
out a  basis  for  temptation  in  his  own  nature.  With 
a  perfectly  holy  universe,  no  race  could  start  into  being, 
under  any  form  of  moral  agency  known  to  us  as 
possible  to  creatures,  without  beginning  its  career  with 
temptation.1 

These  facts  underlie  the  whole  history  of  temptation, 
as  is  shown  by  the  apostle's  'similitude  of  Adam's 
transgression.'2  Adam's  transgression  had  its  rise  from 
impulses  of  flesh  and  world  in  opposition  to  God,  of 
which  the  serpent  took  advantage.  If  there  had  been 

1  *  The  phenomena  of  man  are  in  part  subjected  to  the  laws  of  the  ex- 
ternal universe.  As  dependent  upon  bodily  organization,  as  actuated 
by  sensual  propensities  and  animal  wants,  he  belongs  to  matter,  and  in 
this  respect  he  is  the  slave  of  necessity.  But  what  man  holds  of 
matter  does  not  make  up  his  personality.  They  are  his,  but  not  he. 
Man  is  not  an  organism,  he  is  intelligence  served  by  organs.  For  in 
man  there  are  tendencies,  there  is  a  law,  which  continually  urge  him 
to  prove  that  he  is  more  powerful  than  the  nature  by  which  he  is  sur- 
rounded and  penetrated.  He  is  conscious  to  himself  of  faculties  not 
comprised  in  the  chain  of  physical  necessity  ;  his  intelligence  reveals 
prescriptive  principles  of  action, '  absolute  and  universal,  in  the  law  of 
duty,  and  a  liberty  capable  of  carrying  that  law  into  effect,  in  opposition 
to  the  solicitations,  the  impulsions  of  his  material  nature.  From  the 
coexistence  of  these  opposing  forces  in  man,  there  results  a  ceaseless 
struggle  between  physical  necessity  and  moral  liberty, — in  the  language 
of  Revelation,  between  flesh  and  spirit, — and  the  struggle  constitutes  at 
once  the  distinctive  character  of  humanity,  and  the  essential  condition 
of  human  development  and  virtue.' — SIR  W.  HAMILTON'S  Metaphysics, 
p.  21. 
2  Bom.  v.  13,  14. 


86  .  Seed-Truths. 

no  God  and  no  law  circumscribing  these  impulses,  there 
would  have  been  no  sin ;  '  for  sin  is  not  imputed 
when  there  is  no  law.'  Still  it  was  in  the  world  as 
death  or  inherited  depravity,  reigning  from  Adam  to 
Moses  even  over  them  who  were  in  no  condition  to 
begin  their  sinful  course  as  Adam  began  his.  They 
were  born  under  the  ruling  of  the  flesh,  and  therefore 
in  no  condition  to  cast  off  the  spirit's  ruling  by  trans- 
gressing an  obvious  law.  Inherited  drunkenness  is  a 
different  thing  from  that  which  has  been  acquired  by 
habit.  It  is  equally  pernicious,  however  guilt  in  the 
case  may  be  mitigated.  It  is  death.  The  rites  given 
by  Moses  put  the  Israelites  into  a  condition  to  sin  after 
the  similitude  of  Adam's  transgression, — not  by  making 
them  actually  holy,  but  as  a  test  of  outward  loyalty 
to  God.  The  rest  of  mankind,  as  well  as  those  '  from 
Adam  to  Moses,'  '  having  not  the  law,' l  were  equally 
incapable  of  sinning  as  Adam  did,  and  yet  the  apostle 
shows  that  they  were  equally  in  a  state  of  spiritual 
death.  No  matter  how  a  people  come  under  the  ruling 
of  the  flesh,  the  practical  result  is  the  same,  as  con- 
sumption may  be  equally  fatal  from  a  cold  as  from 
inheritance.  The  question  of  happiness  or  misery  to 
men  here  or  hereafter  cannot  be  resolved  into  the  bene- 
volence of  God,  but  is  to  be  decided  as  to  whether 
flesh  or  spirit  rules  them,  or  whether  their  spiritualism 
is  demoniacal  or  divine.  If  the  latter  is  their  condition, 
how  is  the  benevolence  of  God  to  make  them  happy  ? 
Will  He  bring  them  under  the  ruling  of  His  Spirit  by 
force  in  another  life,  and  thus  make  them  happy  against 
tlnnr  will,  since  His  persuasions  had  failed  with  them 
here  on  earth  ?  The  apostles  never  reason  in  this 
way;  never  speak  of  the  possibility  of  happiness  to 
1  Horn.  ii.  14. 


Spirit  in  Morals.  87 

one  who  does  not  choose  the  Lord  to  be  his  God  ;  never 
inquire  how  he  came  to  choose  in  this  manner,  whether 
from  his  original  impulses  after  the  similitude  of  Adam, 
or  by  an  inherited  taint  of  evil ;  but  they  accept  the 
fact  that  sin,  as  a  state  of  death,  rules  him,  and  he  can 
no  more  be  right  than  a  body  can  be  healthy  which  is 
diseased  in  all  its  organs  and  processes.  Benevolence 
would  dictate  that  men  should  not  suffer ;  but  will 
they  not,  in  case  they  are  sick  or  sinful  ? 

Such  is  the  ruling  of  the  flesh.  It. begins  by  reject- 
ing God's  spiritual  ruling,  corrupts  the  whole  nature, 
unsettles  all  the  foundations  of  a  true  morality,  and 
entails  the  sad  inheritance  upon  posterity.  What  the 
law,  as  delivered  in  Eden  and  from  Sinai,  could  not  do, 
because  the  flesh  had  induced  a  weakness  to  render 
obedience  to  it  impossible,  God  sending  His  own  Son 
in  the  likeness  of  this  very  weakness,  and  for  sin,  con- 
demned sin  in  the  flesh  ;  or  overcame  it  in  His  own 
person,  and  provided  to  do  the  same  in  the  person  of 
His  elect.  Hence  it  is  added,  as  the  end  to  be  gained 
by  the  great  transaction,  '  that  the  righteousness  of  the 
law  may  be  fulfilled  in  us,  who  walk  not  after  the 
flesh,  but  after  the  Spirit.' *  Christ  put  Himself  into 
our  nature  and  circumstances,  as  the  brazen  serpent 
took  the  form  of  those  that  had  infused  the  venom,  thus 
cancelling  that  venom  in  Himself  by  a  perfectly  spiritual 
and  holy  life,  and  providing  the  requisite  power,  by  His 
death  and  resurrection,  to  restore  the  ruling  of  spirit 
over  flesh  in  all  that  obey  Him.  The  object  was,  the 
restored  dominion  of  God  in  the  soul  of  man,  which 
could  only  be  effected  by  spiritual  power.  Hence  He 
is  said  to  travel  in  the  greatness  of  His  strength, 
speaking  in  righteousness,  mighty  to  save.2 

1  Bom.  viii.  3,  4.  a  Isa,  Ixiii.  1. 


88  Seed-Truths. 

Without  this  divine  power  restoring  to  the  man  a 
spiritual  and  heavenly  ruling,  there  can  be  no  true 
morality,  no  purified  conscience  in  the  world ;  because 
nothing  else  can  elevate  man  above  his  selfish  and 
worldly  life.  True,  the  work  may  be  begun  in  many 
cases  when  it  is  yet  very  imperfectly  done.  The 
apostle  complained  of  such,  that  he  could  not  '  speak 
unto  them  as  spiritual,  but  as  unto  carnal,  even  as 
unto  babes  in  Christ/  And  he  adduces  their  envying, 
strife,  and  division,  as  evidence  that  they  had  only 
partially  emerged  from  the  ruling  of  the  flesh.1  Alas, 
how  large  a  portion  of  those  in  whom  we  may  charit- 
ably hope  that  God  has  begun  a  good  work,  are  still 
held  by  their  old  habits  and  ideas ! 

The  new  life  from  God  may  indeed  take  on  many 
different  forms,  and  yet  approach  perfection,  as  we  find 
in  James,  Peter,  and  Paul  some  traces  of  a  difference 
as  to  their  mode  of  regarding  and  treating  Judaism. 
Paul  blamed  Peter's  conduct  on  one  occasion,  and  for 
good  reason.2  Judaizing  ideas,  like  our  habits  in  evil, 
had  too  strong  a  hold  to  be  exploded  at  once,  even  in 
the  most  spiritual  men.  How  hard  is  it  for  the  Spirit 
of  God  to  totally  revolutionize  our  ideas  of  right  and 
wrong,  and  lay  anew  our  foundation  of  morality  ! 
Even  Luther  had  not  fully  escaped  from  the  disguising 
influence  of  a  papistic  training.  Fenelon  inveighed 
against  the  errors  of  the  Catholic  Church,  but  after- 
wards recanted,  and  died  in  its  communion  ;  and  yet 
he  was  eminently  a  spiritual  and  holy  man.  John 
Wesley  was  from  youth  to  old  age  ruled  by  his  vocation 
from  God,  as  few  others  ever  have  been  ;  and  yet  he 
lived  and  died  in  a  Church  establishment  exceedingly 
unlike  the  societies  which  he  organized,  and  which 
» 1  Cor.  iii  1-8.  •  GaL  ii.  11-15. 


Spirit  in  Morals.  89 

grew  into  one  of  the  most  zealous  and  active  of  our 
evangelical  denominations.  Jonathan  Edwards  was  an 
equally  holy  man ;  and  yet  he  employed  his  gig-antic 
intellect  in  reconciling  necessity  and  responsible  agency, 
Calvinism  and  the  freedom  of  the  human  will, — points 
from  which  both  Wesley  and  Fenelon  earnestly  dis- 
sented. 

As  inspired  men  never  conceived  of  a  true  morality 
existing  apart  from  true  religion,  so  they  never  speak 
of  talent  or  mental  culture  apart  from  the  Spirit. 
Abraham,  Moses,  and  David  are  not  called  men  of 
talent,  but  men  after  Gqd's  own  heart.  Ahithophel's 
shrewd  state-craft  made  '  his  counsel  as  if  a  man  had 
inquired  of  God,'  but,  having  no  divine  illumination  in 
it,  it  became  '  foolishness.'1  '  Where  is  the  wise  ? 
where  is  the  scribe  ?  where  is  the  disputer  of  this 
world  ?  hath  not  God  made  foolish  the  wisdom  of  this 
world  V  '  The  world  by  wisdom  knew  not  God.'2 

A  mind  in  which  the  truth  and  love  of  God  have 
no  place  could  not  have  attainments  entitling  him 
to  be  called  wise  in  the  old  Hebrew  sense.  Solomon 
no  doubt  had  natural  capacities  above  most  men,  and 
enjoyed  the  best  culture  the  age  afforded,  and  yet, 
when  God  proposed  to  give  whatever  he  should  ask, 
he  chose  '  an  understanding  heart  to  judge  his  people, 
and  to  discern  between  good  and  bad.'3  In  the  original 
it  is  a  '  hearing  heart,'  fitted  to  catch  the  gentle 
whispers  of  heaven,  and  imbibe  truth  from  God.  There 
is  no  wisdom  in  man  which  is  not  tempered  by  love 
and  goodness,  and  illuminated  from  above.  '  The  in- 
spiration of  the  Almighty  giveth  him  understanding.'4 
The  term  conscience  is  not  used  in  the  Old  Testament, 

1  2  Sam.  xvi.  23.  2  1  Cor.  i.  20,  21. 

3  1  Kings  iii.  9.  *  Job  xxxii.  8. 


9O  Seed-  Truths. 

unless    the   Septuagint  is   right   in  rendering 

Idesis,  conscience,  in  the  words,  '  Curse  not  the 
king  in  thy  conscience.'  But  even  here,  I  think  our 
common  version  better :  '  Curse  not  the  king,  no,  not 
in  thy  thought.'1  What  we  call  conscience  was  not 
made  a  separate  faculty  by  the  old  Hebrews,  but  was 
regarded  as  the  result  of  spirit  acting  upon  man  to 
produce  his  moral  ideas,  as  light  in  the  eye  produces 
seeing. 

In  the  New  Testament  this  spiritual  perception  is 
described  by  our  Lord  as  single  or  clear,  or  as  evil  or 
unsound,  answering  to  like  conditions  in  the  organ  of 
vision.2  And  the  apostles  describe  it  as  a  good  and 
pure  conscience,  an  evil  conscience,  a  conscience  seared 
with  a  hot  iron,  a  defiled  conscience.3  In  all  these 
cases  the  idea  of  influence  from  spirit  is  kept  up,  the 
same  as  that  of  light  is  in  all  cases  of  seeing,  whether 
natural  or  distorted,  clear  or  confused,  acute  or  blunted. 

Our  moral  philosophers  generally  fail  in  their 
theories,  because  they  separate  the  moral  sense  from 
religious  ideas  and  influences.  Hobbes  regarded  con- 
science as  simply  a  thing  of  power.  A  government 
has  power  to  enforce  obedience,  and  therefore  we  are 
bound  to  obey  it.  Whatever  we  are  compelled  to  do, 
we  ought  to  do  ;  and  when  compulsion  ceases,  our 
obligations  cease  with  it.  This  is  very  nearly  his 
statement  of  the  case,  though  power,  as  exercised  by 
God  over  us,  he  conceives  to  be  the  concurrence  of 
motives  influencing  our  conduct,  which  was  determined 
by  a  previous  concurrence  of  events,  and  that  by  a 
previous  still,  and  so  on,  till  we  reach  Omnipotence, 

1  Eccles.  x.  20.  •  Matt.  vi.  22,  23. 

3  1  Tim.  i.  5,  iii.  9 ;  Acts  xxiv.  16  ;  Hob.  ix,  9,  x.  :!  ;  1  Tim.  iv. 
2  ;  Tit.  i.  16. 


Spirit  in  Morals.  91 

•whose  actions  are  alike  determined  by  necessity,  thus 
producing  what  is  called  Hobbes'  doctrine  of  fate. 
This  of  course  annihilates  all  free  agency,  and  reduces 
moral  and  physical  cause  to  the  same  category. 

Paley  makes  conscience  the  intellect  acting  on  moral 
subjects,  and  determining  what  ought  or  ought  not  to 
be  done,  on  utilitarian  principles.  We  are  bound  to 
all  actions  which  seem  to  us  attended  by  the  best 
results.  But  does  a  child  wait  for  results  before 
feeling  that  it  ought  to  obey  its  parents  ?  No  one,  I 
believe,  now  advocates  this  theory. 

Later  writers,  as  Dr.  Wayland,  speak  of  conscience 
as  a  '  distinct  and  separate  faculty/  consisting  of  a 
'  feeling  of  the  ought  or  ought  not.'  It  depends  neither 
upon  power  nor  upon  reasoning,  but  stands  by  itself, 
and  is  ultimate  and  final  in  its  decision  of  the  abstract 
ought  or  ought  not.  This  is  making  man  as  to  his 
moral  feelings  a  detached  item  in  the  universe,  or  as 
affected  out  of  himself  only  by  material  causes.  It 
makes  his  mind  in  its  perception  of  moral  obligations 
what  the  eye  would  be  if  it  could  see  without  light. 
It  is  true,  as  I  have  said,  that,  as  a  mere  creature  •  of 
earth,  man  has,  like  the  beasts,  conservative  elements 
in  his  nature  which  are  a  sort  of  effigy  of  conscience, 
but  as  unlike  it  as  phosphorescence  is  unlike  the  sun- 
beams. That  this  natural  principle  accounts  for  the 
agony  of  remorse,  the  restoring  of  ill-gotten  wealth  to 
those  who  had  not  suspected  their  loss,  the  confession 
of  concealed  crimes,  and  the  extraordinary  working  of 
conscience  in  many  ways,  no  one  can  for  a  moment 
believe.  What  impulse  of  man,  as  disconnected  from 
a  higher  world,  could  be  conceived  as  producing 
results  so  stupendous  ?  Did  nothing  else  work  in 
Judas  when  he  went  out  and  hanged  himself  2 


92  Seed-Truths. 

Bishop  Butler's  clear  discrimination  detected  in 
conscience  something  more  than  a  separate  abstracted 
human  exercise.  '  Conscience/  he  says,  '  is  a  supreme 
principle  of  reflection  in  every  man,  which  distin- 
guishes between  the  internal  principles  of  the  heart  as 
well  as  his  external  actions ;  which  passes  judgment 
on  himself  and  them  ;  pronounces  determinately  some 
actions  to  be  in  themselves  just,  right,  good,  others  to 
be  in  themselves  wrong,  evil,  unjust ;  which,  without 
being  consulted,  without  being  advised  with,  majes- 
tically exerts  itself,  approves  or  condemns  him,  the 
doer  of  them,  accordingly ;  and  which,  if  not  forcibly 
stopped,  naturally  and  always  of  course  goes  on  to 
anticipate  a  higher  and  more  effective  sentencet  which 
sliall  hereafter  second  and  affirm  its  own.'1 

This  is  making  conscience,  what  the  Bible  repre- 
sents, an  influence  from  the  spirit-world  affirming  the 
man's  own  sentence  upon  himself,  and  awakening  in 
him  a  sense  of  God's  authority,  and  of  the  retributions 
of  eternity.  True,  it  may  be  '  stopped'  and  perverted, 
as  may  all  our  other  faculties ;  but  this  cannot  change 
the  nature  of  the  faculty,  nor  make  it  less  the  response 
of  influences  higher  than  any  acting  upon  the  man  from 
himself  or  the  realm  of  nature. 

Kevelation  is  framed  to  this  idea.  It  reasons  out 
nothing  ;  it  offers  no  scientific  facts  or  principles  ;  but 
simply  presents  truths  adapted  to  the  spiritual  appre- 
hension, witji  as  much  confidence  of  meeting  a  re- 
sponse, as  an  artist  in  holding  up  pictures  to  an  appre- 
ciative audience.  True,  conscience  blends  with  reason, 
sometimes  to  be  perverted,  and  again  to  find  a  con- 
firmation of  its  decisions.  But  it  is  so  with  all  our 
other  sentiments.  What  the  eye  sees,  and  the  ear 

1  tiermons  on  JJunutn  Suture,  Harvard  Edition. 


Spirit  in  Morals.  93 

hears,  may  "be  truly  or  falsely  reasoned  upon  by  the 
mind.  All  our  domestic  and  aesthetical  affections  are 
subject  to  a  like  swaying  by  the  intellectual  faculties. 
The  radical  difference  between  the  conscience-feelings 
and  the  intellectual  faculties  may  be  seen  from  the  fact, 
that  persons  most  endowed  with  the  latter  are  frequently 
deficient  in  the  former.  The  muse  of  Byron,  with  all 
its  brilliancy,  coexisted  with  the  lowest  moral  debase- 
ment. On  the  other  hand,  persons  without  culture  in 
art  or  science  are  sometimes  distinguished  for  the 
piety,  purity,  and  benevolence  of  their  lives.  If  the 
eyes  are  blurred,  the  seeing  is  defective,  in  spite  of 
mental  gifts ;  and  if  the  conscience  is  seared,  defiled, 
or  perverted  to  intercept  true  influx  from  the  spirit- 
world,  what  can  talent  or  culture  do  to  correct  the 
evil? 


CHAPTER  X. 

SPIRIT  IN  CONSCIENCE. 

THEEE  are  four  aspects  in  which  religion  or  spiri- 
tual influence  in  conscience  may  he  seen  : — First, 
as  a  sense  of  right  and  wrong,  or  of  the  ought  and  ought 
not ;  second,  as  a  sense  of  a  God  to  enforce  the  law  of 
right;  third,  a  sense  of  retribution  as  a  means  of 
enforcing  the  right ;  fourth,  as  an  assurance  of  immor- 
tality, or  that  we  shall  live  after  death,  to  experience 
the  good  or  ill  of  what  we  do  in  this  life.  All  these 
several  feelings  meet  in  conscience  to  account  for  its 
extraordinary  workings.  If  conscience  is  a  single  or 
separate  faculty,  as  Dr.  Wayland  supposes,  still  it  is  a 
river  of  concurrent  streams  from  distinct  and  various 
fountains. 

We  use  the  terms  sense,  feeling,  and  assurance  in 
this  connection  for  spontaneous  impulses,  like  a  little 
girl's  maternal  tendencies.  She  betrays  them  in  affec- 
tion and  care  for  her  doll,  long  before  her  reason  is 
informed  on  the  subject  of  that  delicate  relation.  In- 
stead of  being  generated  by  reason,  these  tendencies 
rather  direct  and  control  that  faculty.  It  is  her 
motherly  nature  operating  in  her  before  she  knows  the 
why  or  the  wherefore.  The  little  boy's  thoughts  go  to 
his  whip,  his  top,  and  like  amusements,  because  his 
nature  is  different  We  conceive  that  the  sense  of 
right  and  wrong,  of  God,  of  retribution  and  immortality, 

N 


Spirit  in  Conscience.  95 

grow  up  in  like  manner.  They  are  kindred  ideas  or 
impulses,  all  concurring  in  the  conscience  or  moral 
sense. 

As  a  sense  of  right  and  wrong,  conscience  is  a  sove- 
reign critic  upon  our  internal  principles  and  external 
actions,  as  Bishop  Butler  says,  '  majestically  exerting 
itself  without  being  consulted  or  advised  with.'  It 
does  not  wait  for  reason,  or  any  other  faculty,  to  affirm 
its  decisions.  It  says,  You  ought  to  do  so,  and  not  to 
do  so,  and  that  is  the  end  of  the  matter.  It  was  this 
authoritative  power,  giving  its  decisions  within,  that 
made  the  murderer  of  Clarence  say : 

'  I'll  not  meddle  with  it,  it  is  a  dangerous  thing ;  it 
makes  a  man  a  coward :  a  man  cannot  steal  but  it  ac- 
cuseth  him ;  a  man  cannot  swear  but  it  checks  him. 
'Tis  a  blushing,  shamefaced  spirit,  that  mutinies  in  a 
man's  bosom:  it  fills  one  full  of  obstacles.  It  made 
me  once  restore  a  purse  of  gold,  that,  by  chance,  I 
found.  It  beggars  any  man  that  keeps  it.' 1 

This  passage  truthfully  represents  conscience  as  an 
impulse  reasoned  against,  opposed,  or  '  stopped '  in  its 
course,  as  Butler  says,  as  we  oppose  any  one  or  any- 
thing that  interferes  with  our  prevailing  choice.  This 
accords  with  the  Bible  truth  of  sin,  as  resisting  the  Holy 
Spirit,  as  forsaking  God,  as  contemning  God,  as  forget- 
ting God,  and  as  casting  off  fear,  and  restraining  prayer 
before  God.2  It  is  not  God  as  appearing  to  us  in  any 
outward  form  who  is  thus  dealt  with,  but  God  working 
through  the  principles  of  that  nature  which  He  has 
given  us.  His  voice  is  heard  in  those  impulses  to 
right  acting  which  we  call  conscience. 

1  Richard  III.  Act  i.  scene  4. 

2  Acts  vii.  51  ;   Deut.    xxxi.    16  ;   Ezra  viii.    22  ;  John  xvi.    13 ; 
2  Ciirun.  xxi.  10  ;  Ps.  x.  13. 


96  Seed-  Truths. 

This  view  is  sustained  by  what  we  see  in  real  life. 
The  wrong  is  distinctly  perceived  by  many  who  have 
no  dread  of  committing  it  except  the  fear  of  courts,  or 
of  being  disgraced  among  men,  or  of  suffering  some 
other  worldly  inconvenience.  The  certainty  of  not 
being  found  out  puts  them  at  rest  in  their  course  of 
crime,  so  far  as  an  evil- disposed  mind  can  be  at  rest. 
The  naked  sense  of  the  wrong  has  no  force  to  deter 
them  from  its  commission.  But  where  this  sense  of 
the  wrong  is  seconded  and  affirmed  by  anticipations  of 
a  future  world  and  a  coming  judgment,  how  different 
the  result !  A  man  in  England,  after  having  been 
twenty- two  years  an  unsuspected  murderer,  lately  gave 
himself  up  to  justice,  to  relieve  his  conscience,  and  was 
hung  on  his  own  self-impelled  confession.  Cranmer, 
at  the  stake,  held  in  the  flame  the  hand  that  had 
written  a  recantation  of  his  principles,  saying,  '  That 
unworthy  hand.'  Death,  in  its  worst  forms,  has  been 
freely  accepted  by  millions,  rather  than  refuse  the  voice 
of  conscience  speaking  in  the  depth  of  their  nature. 
Something  more  than  a  bare  sense  of  right  and  wrong 
is  present  in  all  such  cases.  Even  animals  show  signs 
of  having  this  sense ;  and  a  thieving  dog  lops  his  tail 
and  ears,  and  sneaks  from  the  presence  of  his  master. 
It  is  a  higher  impulse  in  the  human  soul,  no  doubt, 
than  in  any  animal;  but  still,  detached  from  spirit, 
God,  eternity,  it  has  not  the  requisite  force  to  insure  a 
virtuous  life. 

Many  persons  have  a  distinct  perception  of  the 
wrong  they  have  done,  but  feel  no  remorse.  '  Fools 
i nuke  a  mock  at  sin/  l  and  consider  themselves  nobler, 
more  courageous,  and  more  manly  than  those  timid 
soula  who  are  deterred  in  mi  their  own  wild  career  by 

.  xiv.  9. 


Spirit  in  Conscience.  97 

scruples  of  conscience.  Said  a  boy  who  heard  the 
fearful  oaths  of  another,  '  I  wish  I  dared  swear  so/ 
This  is  the  daring  of  a  conscience  relieved  of  all  spiri- 
tual ideas  and  restraints.  The  sense  of  the  wrong  re- 
mains, but  unchecked  by  the  fear  of  God  or  man,  like 
the  unjust  judge.1 

Others  have  God  much  in  their  thoughts,  and  believe 
in  a  future  retribution,  or  profess  to  do  so,  and  yet 
these  seemingly  spiritual  views  do  not  make  their 
sense  of  right  and  wrong  at  all  more  acute  and  reliable. 
They  will  do  things  manifestly  wicked  without  seem- 
ing to  know  it,  or  having  any  sense  of  guilt  or  shame. 
How  self-complacent  were  the  Pharisees  in  praying  at 
the  corners  of  the  streets,  and  wearing  passages  of  the 
law  upon  their  garments,  and  yet  using  those  very 
pretences  of  extraordinary  piety  to  ensnare  widows  to 
entrust  them  with  their  substance,  that  they  might 
devour  it ! 2  Their  religion  was  divorced  from  the  sense 
of  right  and  wrong,  as  that  sense  in  the  former  class 
was  divorced  from  religion.  In  our  day,  how  many 
become  intensely  devout,  praying  and  praising  night 
and  day,  and  yet  their  word  'is  not  to  be  trusted  in 
the  ordinary  transactions  of  life  !  These  may  be  excep- 
tional cases ;  still  they  exist,  showing  the  effect  of  de- 
taching soul  from  spirit,  or  morality  from  religion,  on 
the  one  hand,  or,  on  the  other,  of  making  religion 
consist  in  ceremonies,  emotions,  or  anything  else,  when 
it  does  not  act  as  an  executive  force  in  conscience,  to 
rectify  and  enforce  its  decisions.  The  true  working 
of  spirit  in  this  faculty  is  illustrated  in  the  case  of 
Zaccheus,  rendering  him  both  just  and  generous.3 

These  facts  show  that  there  are  distinct  and  distin- 
guishable elements  in  conscience,  soul,  and  spirit,  or  man's 
1  Luke  xviii.  2-5.  2  Matt,  xxiii.  14.  *  Luke  xix.  1-9. 

G 


Of  THE 


98  Seed-  Truths. 

natural  sense  of  right  and  wrong,  sustained  by  worldly  or 
prudential  considerations,  and  spiritual  ideas  or  influences 
from  God  and  the  realm  of  spirits.  These  two  elements 
may  be  likened  to  the  nerves  of  sensation  and  motion 
in  the  human  body,  one  of  which  may  be  paralyzed, 
and  not  the  other,  so  that  the  diseased  member  acts 
while  it  does  not  feel,  or  feels  while  it  does  not  act. 
Their  united  contributions  are  necessary  to  muscular 
health  and  vigour.  So  soul  and  spirit,  the  natural  con- 
science and  spiritual  truths  and  influences,  must  com- 
mingle within  us,  in  order  to  a  sound,  true,  and  vigor- 
ous state  of  our  moral  nature.  A  conscience  evil, 
defiled,  cauterized,  and  encumbered  with  dead  works,  is 
not  annihilated,'  but  is  spoken  of  by  the  apostles  as  still 
existing,  though  incapable  as  perverted  reason  or  vitiated 
feeling  of  doing  its  proper  office.  A  paralyzed  arm  is 
still  an  arm,  however  it  may  have  lost  its  cunning.  No 
matter  how  a  man  may  disconnect  himself  from  God, 
he  has  still  a  nature  that  concerns  itself  about  right 
and  wrong,  though  it  be  only  'deceiving  and  being 
deceived.' l 

Nothing  is  plainer  or  more  generally  conceded  than 
that  this  faculty,  as  it  exists  among  men,  is  intimately 
connected  with  the  idea  of  God.  However  this  idea 
may  have  originated,  it  is  still  a  great  fact  in  human 
nature.  And  our  concern  is  with  what  is,  or  with 
what  the  Scriptures  teach,  and  not  with  how  it  came 
to  be.  Sir  William  Hamilton  thinks  that  the  idea 
is  derived  from  our  moral,  and  not  our  intellectual 
nature.  '  If  there  be  no  moral  world,  there  can  be  no 
moral  governor  of  such  a  world,'  he  says ;  '  and  we  can 
have  no  ground  on  which  to-  believe  in  the  reality  of  a 
moral  world,  except  so  far  as  we  are  ourselves  moral 

1  2  Tim.  iii.  13. 


Spirit  in  Conscience.  99 

agents.'1  This  is  no  doubt  very  true,  but  it  is  a 
truth  far  more  conclusively  affirmed  by  inspired  vision, 
which  throughout  recognises  man  as  accountable  to 
God  for  what  he  is,  and  what  he  does,  and  affected  by 
influences  from  a  higher  world  as  really  as  from  this. 

The  idea  of  God  is  not  a  thing  reasoned  out,  any 
more  than  the  fact  that  we  exist.  No  man  ever 
reasoned  himself  into  the  belief  of  his  own  existence. 
That  comes  to  him  spontaneously,  like  the  little  girl's 
maternal  feelings  as  manifested  in  her  care  for  her  doll. 
They  gush  up  from  her  nature ;  and  so  it  is  with  our 
sense  of  the  divine  existence.  It  comes  up  spontane- 
ously, to  shape  our  ideas,  and  to  impel  us  to  worship,  if 
it  be  nothing  better  than  gold,  silver,  brass,  or  wood ; 
wind,  water,  storm,  or  stars ;  fowls,  four-footed  beasts, 
and  creeping  things.  Some  convert  their  atheism  into 
an  object  of  adoration,  and  are  willing,  as  Lord  Bacon 
says,  to  die  for  it.  The  African  vents  his  spiritual 
instincts  upon  his  fetish,  the  American  Indian  upon 
his  Great  Medicine,  the  old  Greeks  upon  Jupiter,  as 
the  Hebrews  found  scope  for  theirs  in  Jehovah,  the 
Maker  of  heaven,  earth,  and  sea,  and  all  things  therein. 
Each  conceived  of  his  god  as  the  rewarder  of  what  to 
him  seemed  right,  and  the  punisher  of  what  to  him 
seemed  wrong.  However  gross  and  corrupting  the  idea, 
still,  to  the  devotee,  it  is  spirit  and  not  matter, — as  it 
is  spirits  that  a  boy  fears  in  a  graveyard,  and  not 
dead  men's  bones.  It  is  the  idea  of  supernatural 
power  of  which  animals  are  incapable,  because  theirs 
is  a  world  of  sense,  while  ours  is  a  world  of  spirit, 
especially  in  what  concerns  right  and  wrong.-  We 
feel  that  we  must  be  right  with  the  world  above  as 
well  as  that  below. 

1  Mttaphysics,  p.  23. 


i  oo  Seed-  TrutJis. 

'  Tis  greatly  wise  to  talk  with  our  past  hours, 
And  ask  them  what  report  they  bore  to  heaven, 
And  how  they  might  have  borne  more  welcome  news.' 

Reasoning  against  such  a  tendency  of  thought  may 
confuse  our  ideas,  but  cannot  pacify  our  sense  of  a  God 
above  to  supervise  our  actions.  Can  we  reason  our- 
selves out  of  the  .  sense  of  pleasure  and  pain  ?  Even 
reason  is  prone  to  stumble  upon  the  question  of  a 
great  First  Cause,  as  well  as  conscience  upon  that  of 
amenableness  to  God.  Both  parts  of  our  nature,  the 
intellectual  and  the  pathemic,  are  under  a  like  necessity 
of  stepping  out  of  the  range  of  the  natural  to  find  the 
groundwork  of  its  convictions  and  its  moral  feelings. 
No  absurdity  of  worship,  no  monstrosities  of  theology, 
no  perversions  of  the  moral  code,  have  ever  effectually 
cured  men  of  their  tendency  to  worship,  and  to  feel 
that  there  is  a  God  above  to  take  cognizance  of  their 
actions.  As  our  family  ties  survive  in  spite  of  all  the 
corruptions  and  abuses  of  the  sexual  and  conjugal  re- 
lations, so  our  moral  feelings,  as  centring  in  God,  have 
outlived  ten  thousand  errors  in  duty  and  theology. 

The  Bible  acts  advisedly,  therefore,  in  keeping  God 
ever  before  us  as  our  Sovereign,  and  His  spiritual  laws 
as  our  rule  of  conduct.  In  heaven,  the  place  of  His 
throne,  service  is  done  to  Him  day  and  night.  There 
the  beams  of  His  throne  fall  so  directly  and  so  radiantly, 
that  the  angels  cover  their  faces  to  soften  the  insuf- 
ferable brightness.  Moses  veiled  his  face,  and  Paul 
'sobered'  or  moderated  his  language,  after  being  ad- 
mitted to  visions  of  heaven,  for  the  sake  of  those  who 
could  not  comprehend  all  he  thought  and  all  he  felt.1 
Can  we  wonder  that  the  sun  of  such  a  system,  however 
obliquely  shining  and  darkly  obscured  by  error  and 

xxxir.  33;  2  Cor.  v.  13,  xii.  2;  Malt.  xvii.  2;  1  Cor.  ii.  12, 


Spirit  in  Conscience.  101 

passion,  should  have  its  effect  in  the  coldest  moral 
climes  of  this  sin-cursed  world  ?  What  may  not  be 
hoped  to  man  from  the  restored  idea  of  the  true  God  ? 
*  This  is  life  eternal,  to  know  Thee,  the  true  God,  and 
Jesus  Christ  whom  Thou  hast  sent/1  Eight  affections 
towards  God  are  the  only  corrective  of  conscience,  the 
sole  basis  of  a  good  and  happy  life.  The  whole  Bible 
is  framed  to  the  idea  of  restoring  God  to  His  proper 
seat  in  human  nature.  The  seers  and  the  law  of  Moses 
represented  this  in  prediction  and  by  symbol ;  '  but  we 
all,  with  open  face  beholding  as  in  a  glass  the  glory  of 
the  Lord,  are  changed  into  the  same  image,  from  glory 
to  glory,  even  as  by  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord.' 2  The  more 
we  know  of  God,  the  greater  the  purifying  influence. 
Familiarity  here  breeds  reverence  and  not  contempt,  as 
handling  electricity  increases  our  sense  of  its  power. 
'  Oh  that  Thou  wouldst  rend  the  heavens  and  come 
down,'3  is  a  prayer  that  contemplates  the  removal  of 
all  obstructions  between  our  souls  and  God,  that 
infinite  truth  and  love  may  flow  in  upon  us  from  above, 
to  illumine  our  darkness,  to  exalt  our  aspirations. 

How  terrible  to  the  guilty  is  the  sense  of  the  speak- 
ing Divinity ! 

'  Metli ought  I  heard  a  voice  cry,  "  Sleep  no  more !  " 
Macbeth  does  murder  sleep.'* 

Even  the  purpose  of  a  wrong  robs  the  soul  of  rest : 

'  Between  the  acting  of  a  dreadful  thing 
And  the  first  motion,  all  the  interim  is 
Like  a  phantasma,  or  a  hideous  dream.'3 

Conscience,  as  a  mere  calculation  of  earthly  conse- 
quences, could  hardly  be  supposed  to  attach  any  such 

1  John  xvii.  3.  2  2  Cor.  iii.  18.  8  Isa.  Ixiv.  1. 

4  Macbeth,  Act  ii.  scene  2. 

6  Julius  Ccesar,  Act  iv.  scene  1. 


i  o  2  Seed-  Truths. 

significance  to  an  evil  design.  The  wound  goes  deeper 
than  the  external  rind  of  our  existence ;  it  strikes  to 
the  secret  core  where  centre  the  nerves  and  fibres  of 
our  spiritual  being,  connecting  us  with  God.  It  is  a 
cut  in  the  great  arteries,  through  which  we  feel  that 
our  life-blood  of  purity  and  peace  is  oozing  out. 
Conscience,  as  connected  with  God,  takes  the  alarm  at 
the  first  motion  to  crime,  and,  as  a  householder  the 
thief  in  his  open  window,  seizes  us  by  the  throat  to 
deter  us  from  its  commission.  Its  opposition  is  feebler 
as  we  advance,  because  our  hold  upon  God  and  right  is 
relaxed,  and  we  come  in  the  end  to  do  with  glee  what  at 
first  we  could  not  think  of  without  horror.  Then  we  are 
God-abandoned,  as  a  sick  man  is  given  up  by  his  friends, 
when  disease  has  corrupted  all  the  springs  of  life  within 
him,  and  left  no  hope  of  his  recovery.  '  It  is  a  fearful 
thing  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  living  God.'  '  For 
our  God  is  a -consuming  fire.'1 

Retribution  \&  another  aspect  in  which  conscience  is 
to  be  viewed.  We  are  not  to  think  of  this  as  the 
result  of  an  outward  threatening,  as  a  child  under  the 
rod,  or  a  state  criminal  at  the  bar  of  his  sovereign,  but 
as  inherent  to  the  man,  and  a  part  of  his  conscience. 
The  feeling  of  retribution  begins  in  the  unrest  of  a 
criminal  purpose.  A  glutton  needs  no  flagellations  to 
punish  him.  His  repleted  stomach,  and  overcharged 
blood-vessels,  and  dizzy  head,  and  shaking  limbs,  and 
torpid  digestion,  are  his  stocks,  his  thumbscrews,  and 
his  whipping-post.  '  Dying  thou  shalt  die/  No  overt 
act  can  increase  its  certainty.  It  comes  as  the  inevi- 
table working  of  the  moral  forces  which  made  the  sin 
possible,  as  breathing  carbon  ensures  death.  The  guilty 
one  feels  that  he  is 

»  Heb.  x.  81,  xii.  29. 


Spirit  in  Conscience.  103 

'  cabined,  cribbed,  confined,  bound  in 
To  saucy  doubts  and  fears. ' * 

Retribution  dominates  him  from  the  working  of  his 
own  nature,  and  without  interference  by  others.  Insen- 
sibility, like  cauterized  flesh,  may  afford  momentary 
alleviations ;  but  this  is  only  deadening  the  sense  of  a 
less  by  means  of  a  greater  pain.  Nemesis  cannot  thus 
be  baulked  of  her  purpose. 

Guilty  purposes  are  formed  at  the  instigation  of 
avarice,  voluptuousness,  ambition,  revenge,  or  other  dark 
impulses,  and  are  .usually  sustained  by  any  amount  of 
fallacious  reasoning.  We  come  to  doubt  whether  we 
ought  to  forego  the  good  within  our  reach  or  the  redress 
of  our  wrongs.  The  more  we  turn  over  the  matter,  the 
more  our  reasons  for  doing  the  deed  grow  upon  us,  and 
at  length,  our  scruples  cancelled,  we  rush  upon  the  act, 
throwing  our  doubts  to  the  wind.  Then  comes  the 
recoil.  The  wind  of  the  day  has  cooled  our  hot  blood, 
as  in  the  case  of  Adam,2  and  conscience  collides  against 
eternal  truth  and  justice.  The  spirit- world  opens  upon 
us  its  terrors.  Medusa  shakes  pestilence  from  her 
horrid  hair.  We  'flee  when  no  man  pursueth.'3  Thus 
Lady  Macbeth,  on  looking  at  her  murder-stained  hands, 
cried  out  with  an  infinite  depth  of  woe: 

'  Here's  the  smell  of  blood  still :  all  the  perfumes 
Of  Arabia  will  not  sweeten  this  little  hand.     Oh!  oh!  oh!  '4. 

Such  is  the  outworking  of  spirit  as  a  retributive 
element  in  the  wrong-doer.  He  cannot  feel  as  careless 
as  a  beast  in  doing  a  deed  of  blood  till  he  has  reduced 
himself  to  a  bestial  condition,  and  extinguished  from 
his  soul  all  the  inbreathed  attributes  of  the  divine  at 

1  Macbeth,  Act  iii.  scene  4. 

1  Gen.  iii.  8.     '  Wind '  is  the  literal  rendering. 

*  Prov.  xxviii.  1.  4  Macbeth,  Act  v.  scene  1. 


1 04  Seed-  Truths. 

X 

our  creation.  Retribution  is  in  the  criminal  himself. 
It  is  a  part  of  his  nature.  It  rewards  him  with  inward 
approval  when  he  is  right,  and  with  condemnation 
when  he  is  indeed  criminal.  This,  therefore,  is  an 
e^ment  in  conscience,  and  not  something  extraneous 
to  it,  and  is  an  essential  constituent  of  those  deep,  pro- 
found, and  terrible  exercises  of  the  man  which  we 
ascribe  to  this  faculty.  There  is  no  being  in  the  uni- 
verse that  the  criminal  has  so  much  reason  to  dread  as 
what  is  in  himself, — '  the  demon  thought/ 

Another  element  in  conscience  is  the  sense  of  the 
'permanency  of  rewards  and  punishments.  This  involves 
immortality,  the  belief  of  which  among  all  nations  is 
far  in  advance  of  the  intellectual  evidences  of  the  doc- 
trine. The  greatest  reasoners  of  heathen  antiquity, 
Socrates,  Plato,  Cicero,  Cato,  Seneca,  were  strong  in 
their  hope  of  immortality ;  but  when  we  examine  the 
grounds  on  which  they  founded  it,  we  cannot  but  feel 
their  insufficiency.  Cicero  makes  much  account  of  the 
younger  Scipio's  dream,  that  his  dead  father  appeared 
to  him,  saying,  '  Do  not  consider  yourself,  but  your 
body,  to  be  mortal ;  for  you  are  not  the  being  which 
your  corporeal  figure  evinces;  but  the  mind  is  the 
man,  and  not  that  form  which  may  be  delineated  with 
a  finger.  Know,  therefore,  that  you  are  a  divine  person.' 
This  dream,  which  is  long,  and  well  told,  shows  the 
tendency  of  thought  among  educated  pagans  just  prior 
to  the  introduction  of  Christianity,  in  which  '  life  and 
immortality  are  brought  to  light  through  the  gospel/ 
•without  which  we  have  no  available  hold  upon  a  life 
to  come,  as  a  thing  of  intellectual  bt-l 

Immortality,  like  the  existence  of  God,  moral  liberty, 
and  other  like  truths,  we  are,  as  it  were,  necessitated 
to  believe,  though  we  cannot  reduce  them  to  any  such 


Spirit  in  Conscience.  105 

form  of  certainty  as  that  two  and  two  make  four,  or 
the  whole  of  a  thing  is  greater  than  its  parts.  It  is  a 
part  of  our  moral  nature  to  feel  that,  however  punish- 
ment of  wrong  may  be  delayed,  it  will  come  in  the 
end, — if  not  in  this  life,  in  one  that  is  to  come.  If 
we  could  feel  a  certainty  of  dying  like  the  beasts,  it 
would  lead  us  to  say,  '  Let  us  make  the  most  of  life 
while  we  have  it.  Let  us  take  our  fill  of  its  pleasures. 
"  Let  us  eat  and  drink  ;  for  to-morrow  we  die."  '  Very 
few  men  can  really  feel  this  at  their  death,  however 
they  may  have  acted  upon  it  in  life.  They  still  have 
lingering  doubts  as  to  what  is  to  come  after  death. 
The  question  is  ever  obtruding  upon  the  rustic,  as  well 
as  the  poet  and  philosopher : 

'  Has  man  within  him  an  immortal  seed, 
Or  does  the  tomb  take  all  ?     If  he  survive 
His  ashes,  where  ?  and  in  what  weal  or  woe  ?— 
Knots  worthy  of  solution,  which  alone 
A  Deity  can  solve.' 

This  assurance  of  immortality,  like  the  eye,  though 
unable  to  originate  light  on  the  subject,  is  quick  to 
feel  its  impression  when  it  comes.  It  fancies  it  sees  it 
in  things  very  dark  and  uncertain,  as  the  confidence 
felt  in  ghost-seeing,  spirit-rapping,  and  the  like,  clearly 
shows.  There  is  in  most  men  a  longing  after  immor- 
tality, as  the  infant  appetite  longs  for  its  yet  untasted 
food,  which  leads  them  to  seize  on  the  first  evidence 
that  comes  within  their  reach.  And  a  certain  unreason- 
ing confidence  enters  largely  into  the  working  of  con- 
science, which  is  thus  graphically  depicted  by  Shake- 
speare in  the  oft-quoted  passage : 

'  To  be,  or  not  to  be,  that  is  the  question, — 
Whether  'tis  nobler  in  the  mind  to  suffer 

1  1  Cor.  xv.  32. 


io6  Seed-Truths. 

The  stings  and  arrows  of  outrageous  fortune, 

Or  take  arms  against  a  sea  of  troubles, 

And,  by  one  opening,  end  them  ? 

To  sleep!  perchance  to  dream, — ay,  there's  the  rnb; 

For  in  that  sleep  of  death  what  dreams  may  come, 

"When  we  have  shuffled  off  this  mortal  coil, 

Must  give  us  pause ! 

But  who  would  fardels  bear, 
To  grunt  and  sweat  under  a  weary  life, 
But  that  the  dread  of  something  after  death,— 
The  undiscovered  country,  from  whose  bourne 
No  traveller  returns, — puzzles  the  will, 
And  makes  us  rather  bear  those  ills. we  have, 
Than  fly  to  others  we  know  not  of? 
Thus  conscience  does  make  cowards  of  us  all.'1 

This  is  a  true  picture  of  our  anticipations  of  a 
coming  life  in  the  workings  of  conscience.  They  give 
a  significance  to  what  we  are  and  do,  which  is  quite 
out  of  the  question  to  a  mere  creature  of  earth.  Even 
Xenophon  felt  this.  '  That  person,'  he  says,  '  who  is 
conscious  to  himself  of  having  neglected  his  oaths,  in 
my  opinion,  can  never  be  happy ;  for  whoever  becomes 
the  object  of  divine  wrath,  I  know  no  swiftness  can 
save  him,  no  darkness  hide  him,  no  stronghold  defend 
him ;  since  in  all  places,  all  are  subject  to  the  power  of 
the  gods,  and  everywhere  they  are  equally  lords  of  all'3 

This  idea  of  immortality,  acting  with  a  sense  of  God 
and  retribution  as  a  spiritual  element  in  conscience,  is 
precisely  what  the  seers  saw  in  man.  How  else  can 
we  '  have  respect  unto  the  recompense  of  the  reward ' 
in  a  coming  life,  in  refusing  the  pleasures  of  sin  for 
the  trials  of  duty  ?  How  else  can  '  a  certain  fearful 
ing  for  of  judgment  and  fiery  indignation'  attend  a 
course  of  sin  ?  Morality  in  the  Bible  and  in  real  life 
is  a  joint  influence  of  two  worlds, — that  of  nature  and 
that  of  spirits. 

,,ilctt  Act  iii.  scene  1.  *  Cyrus,  Book  n.  sec.  i. 


CHAPTER    XI. 

HISTORY  AN  OUTGROWTH  OF  SEED-TRUTHS. 

WHEN  we  consider  the  Bible  record  of  man  in 
his  several  stages, — in  his  innocence,  in  his 
transition  to  guilt,  and  in  his  progress  towards  resto- 
ration as  conducted  by  divine  love  and  power, — we 
find  it  every  way  adjusted  to  the  views  which  the 
inspired  writers  give  of  his  creation  and  the  elements 
of  his  nature.  The  history  of  animals,  as  in  water,  on 
land,  or  as  amphibious,  is  not  more  suited  to  their 
organs,  than  the  moral  and  spiritual  developments  of 
our  race  to  its  constitution.  If  the  Bible  were  a 
fiction,  it  would  be  more  extraordinary,  in  the  harmony 
of  its  various  and  complicated  statements,  as  a  work  of 
human  genius  or  invention,  than  it  is  even  as  a  super- 
natural revelation.  How  are  we  to  account  for  the 
fact  that  documents  written  by  so  many  persons,  in 
ages  and  countries  remote  from  each  other,  and  in 
such  varieties  of  social  condition  and  educational  train- 
ing, should  so  uniformly  adhere  both  to  one  type  of 
humanity  and  to  one  theology,  except  on  the  prin- 
ciple of  truth  in  the  sources  of  their  information,  and 
in  the  objects  which  they  describe  ?  Their  views  of 
man  contain  no  such  discords  of  opinion  as  we  see  in 
the  metaphysicians,  and  their  doctrines  of  God  are  not 
varient  and  conflicting.  The  first  chapters  of  Genesis 
and  the  last  of  Revelation  are  as  singular  in  theii 

107 


io8  Seed-Truths. 

adjustment  to  each  other,  as  in  their  imagery  of  the 
river,  the  tree  of  life,  and  of  paradisiacal  beatification.1 
Does  this  look  like  fiction  ? 

It  may  be  well,  at  this  stage  of  our  subject,  to  con- 
dense into  one  view  the  seed-truths  of  man  considered 
in  the  previous  chapters,  that  we  may  enter  on  our 
further  inquiries  with  a  clear  idea  of  the  race  whose 
record  we  would  follow  up  in  its  principal  bearings. 

The  existence  of  two  distinct  worlds,  the  spiritual 
and  the  natural,  is  clearly  set  before  us  in  the  word  of 
God.  The  spiritual  world  vastly  transcends  the  natural 
in  its  position,  power,  and  variety  of  parts,  in  refer- 
ence to  which  Jehovah  is  called  '  the  Lord  of  hosts ; ' 
'  thousand  thousands  ministering  to  Him,  and  ten  thou- 
sand times  ten  thousand  standing  before  Him.'2  Great 
as  the  material  universe  seems  to  us,  the  inspired 
writers  made  little  account  of  it  compared  with  what 
opened  upon  them  in  the  realm  of  spirits. 

The  modes  of  conceiving  truth  or  of  knowing  are 
radically  different  in  the  spirit-realm  from  what  they 
are  in  the  natural  man,  on  account  of  which,  symbols 
and  peculiar  forms  of  representation,  such  as  we  meet 
with  nowhere  out  of  the  Bible,  become  necessary  to 
convey  spiritual  truths  to  men  in  the  flesh.  They 
must  be  embodied  as  seed  in  soil,  before  they  can 
yield  a  harvest  of  ideas  to  minds  so  subject  to  material 
laws  as  ours  are.  It  is  a  process  of  spiritual  incarna- 
tion. 

The  Hebrew  language  grew  up,  to  a  great  extent, 
from  an  effort  to  express  through  it  spiritual  ideas ; 
and  hence  it  has  discriminations  between  soul  and 

1  Gen.  ii.  8-17  ;  Rev.  xxii.  1-5. 

2  1  S.ini.  i.   11  ;  Ps.  liv.  $  ;  Tsn.  xlvii.  4  ;  .Tor.  xlvi.  IS  ;  T>,in.  vii 
10. 


History  an  Outgrowth  of  Seed-Truths.    109 

spirit  which  are  indigenous  to  no  other  language.  In 
other  respects  also,  as  well  as  from  the  ritual  worship, 
the  peculiarities  of  Hebrew  history,  and  the  messages 
of  prophets,  it  became  before  all  other  languages  the 
vehicle  of  heavenly  truths,  and  the  most  fitting  organ 
for  bridging  the  gulf  between  natural  and  spiritual 
modes  of  conception  and  of  thought. 

The  mind  of  the  flesh  and  the  mind  of  the  spirit 
are  both  proper  to  man  as  uniting  in  his  soul, — body 
on  the  one  hand,  and  spirit  on  the  other;  though  the 
one  becomes  carnal-mindedness  when  it  rules  him  as 
now  in  his  carnal  state,  and  the  other  spiritual-minded- 
ness  when  he  is  ruled  by  the  Holy  Spirit. 

The  type  of  man  is  in  God  as  seen  in  this,  that 
God  unites  in  Himself  both  the  spiritual  universe  and 
material  nature;  so  man  unites  in  himself  body  on 
the  one  hand,  through  which  he  communicates  with 
matter,  and  spirit  on  the  other,  through  which  he  is 
fitted  to  communicate  with  the  realm  of  spirits.  '  God 
created  all  things  by  Jesus  Christ,  who  is  the  image  of 
the  invisible  God,  the  first-born  of  every  creature ; ' 
'the  Word  in  the  beginning  with  God;'  the  charac- 
terized or  expressed  Divinity ;  who  is  both  the  Son  of 
God  and  the  Son  of  man,  and  therefore  the  archetype 
of  humanity.1  He  is  the  temple  in  heaven ;  and  man 
was  created  to  be  such  on  earth,  thus  uniting  in  the 
adytum  of  his  being  the  Holy  Spirit  with  his  outer 
life  as  his  ruling  power  in  all  things.  God  would 
rule  the  world  by  man,  as  He  rules  heaven  by  His 
'  Son,  whom  He  has  appointed  heir  of  all  things/  say- 
ing, '  Let  all  the  angels  worship  Him.'2 

This  twofold   connection   of  man  with   spirit   and 

1  Heb.  i.  2-4  ;  Col.  i.  15  ;  2  Cor.  iv.  4  ;  John  i.  1,  14. 
1  Heb.  i.  2,  6. 


no  Seed-  Truths. 

with  flesh  is  the  hinge  on  which  his  whole  develop- 
ment turns.  It  is  set  forth  in  a  variety  of  ways  hy 
inspired  men,  as  that  of  using  the  outer  organs  of  his 
body  for  his  earthly  life,  and  the  inner  organs  for  his 
interior  life, — ground,  mortal,  flesh,  skull,  on  the  one 
hand ;  and  heart,  kidneys,  bowels,  and  inward  parts, 
on  the  other.  These  two  classes  of  terms  show  the 
duplicate  view  which  the  seers  took  of  man. 

Spirit,  soul,  and  body  are  also  used  for  a  like  dis- 
tinction. They  are  not  three  distinct  natures,  as  some 
incautiously  express  themselves.  The  nature  is  a  unit 
in  the  soul  or  conscious  selfhood,  but  a  unit  with  the 
capacity  of  fleshly  communication  on  the  one  hand, 
and  spiritual  on  the  other.  The  soul  in  Hebrew  is  the 
personality  as  distinguished  from  his  capabilities  of 
being  either  a  beast,  an  angel,  or  a  devil  What  a 
man  is  and  what  he  is  capable  of,  are  distinct  views  of 
his  nature  as  a  unit.  The  soul  is  not  flesh,  though  it 
may  be  fleshly ;  nor  is  it  spirit,  though  it  may  be  spiri- 
tual,— that  is,  not  spirit  in  the  sense  that  God  is  so. 
It  is  receptive  of  spirit,  and  is  sometimes  called  such ; 
though  Dives  in  hell  was  not  spirit  in  the  sense  of 
being  spiritual,  any  more  than  he  was  flesh,  however 
fleshly  he  seemed  still  to  be  in  his  ideas  and  feelings.1 
The  soul  is  substance,  not  matter;  not  an  ethereal  essence 
exhaled  from  God,  to  be  melted  at  death  into  the  ex- 
panse, as  some  foolishly  talk,  but  the  basis  or  sub- 
stratum of  powers  rendering  it  strong  to  will,  to  act,  and 
to  enjoy  or  suffer  throughout  the  ages  of  eternity.1 
Such  is  the  nephesh  of  inspired  mea  It  lives  in  flesh 
by  breathing  air,  it  lives  in  God  by  prayer  and  holy 
aspirations. 

1  Lukexvi.  19-31. 

f  Mutt  xxv.  46 ;  Dan.  xii.  2 ;  John  v.  29  ;  Rom.  il  7. 


History  an  Outgrowth  of  Seed-  Truths.    1 1 1 

Man's  spiritual  relations  occupy  the  chief  attention 
of  inspired  men.  Their  visions,  doctrines,  laws,  cere- 
monies, histories,  sketches  of  character,  and  their  whole 
range  of  thought,  are  in  this  respect  unlike  all  other 
writers,  except  as  ideas  have  been  derived  from  them. 
They  dwell  in  the  unseen  world.  Spirit  in  revelation 
is  what  the  life  is  to  the  body.  The  all-pervading 
presence,  holiness,  and  glory  of  God  are  their  great 
idea.  They  are  the  inspiration  of  those  who  cry  Holy, 
holy,  holy,  in  heaven,  as  they  are  of  our  Christian 
doxology  upon  earth. 

The  realm  of  spirits  is  related  to  our  faculties  of 
spiritual  apprehension  precisely  as  nature  is  to  our 
minds,  through  the  bodily  senses.  And  nothing  pre- 
vents our  conscious  and  happy  connection  with  it, 
except  the  preoccupation  of  our  minds  with  things 
material  and  earthly.  A  fleshly  life  bars  communion 
with  God.  The  petitions  which  Jesus  teaches  us  to 
offer, — '  Thy  kingdom  come,  Thy  will  be  done  in  earth 
as  in  heaven,' — contemplate  our  restored  connection 
with  the  spirit-realm>  and  no  doubt  the  ultimate  com- 
mingling of  God's  family  in  heaven  with  His  family 
on  earth,  as  in  the  primitive  life  of  the  race. 

The  great-  organizations,  politico-religious,  are  the 
outworking  of  spiritual  forces,  beneficent  or  malign; 
and  it  is  this  blending  in  them  of  seen  and  unseen 
agencies  that  accounts  for  their  hold  upon  men,  and 
consequent  perpetuity.  The  war  spoken  of  in  Reve- 
lation between  '  Michael  and  his  angels  '  and  '  the 
dragon  and  his  angels,'  seems  to  Ibe  a  conflict  be- 
tween the  good  and  evil  of  these  institutional  forces.1 

Morality  and  conscience  owe  their  chief  power  to 
this  connection  with  the  spirit- world. 
1  Rev.  xii.  7-9. 


112  Sced-Trutfis. 

Such  are  the  leading  principles  at  the  foundation  of 
all  human  development,  and  they  shape  the  course  of 
history.  Diet,  climate,  peculiarities  of  race,  and  like 
causes,  have  no  doubt  a  modifying  influence,  just  as  a 
river  is  tinged  by  the  soils  over  which  it  flows ;  but, 
like  the  river,  these  contributions  from  a  higher  world 
are  still  an  element  distinct  from  all  their  surround- 
ings. They  are  the  powers  which  connect  man  with 
immortality.  They  work  in  us  ;  they  pervade  our  life, 
like  the  unseen  magnetism  acting  upon  our  bodies ; 
sometimes  concealed,  and  again  revealing  themselves 
to  our  faith ;  and  in  them  we  live  and  move  and  have 
our  being.  They  have  no  necessitating  power  over 
our  wills  more  than  the  air  we  breathe ;  and  yet,  like 
the  air,  they  are  a  motive-power  with  us,  and  the  result 
upon  our  character  and  our  destiny  depends  entirely 
upon  how  we  use  them.  Such  is  the  teaching  of  in- 
spired men  on  this  important  subject. 

That  the  principles  thus  developed  in  the  preceding 
pages  are  the  modifying  forces  in  history,  who  can 
doubt  ?  Were  not  the  antediluvians  deluged  with 
vice  before  they  were  with  water  ?  Did  not  their 
whole  history  turn  upon  their  twofold  relation  to  God 
and  the  world  ?  Were  not  the  Noachian  tribes  dis- 
persed as  the  seeding  of  nations,  to  check  the  mad 
project  of  using  their  united  strength  to  scale  heaven 
and  attain  to  the  state  of  gods  ? x  Indeed,  we  have 
only  to  look  at  the  world  as  it  now  is  to  find  abundant 
evidence  of  the  Bible  view  of  man  and  his  relations. 
Millions  of  the  race  are  so  entirely  detached  from  God 
as  to  lead  wholly  a  material  life.  They  are  savages, 
and  sunk  to  the  level  of  nature.  And  yet,  to  show 
their  inherent  iitness  for  a  higher  life,  they  are  super- 
1  Gen.  xi.  6,  7. 


History  an  Outgrowth  of  Seed-Truths.   113 

stitious ;  they  practise  witchcraft ;  they  have,  in  fact,  a 
sort  of  perverted  spiritualism,  that  as  clearly  evinces 
higher  elements  than  those  of  a  merely  animal  nature, 
as  the  faith  or  the  devotion  of  Christians.  They  are 
an  illustration  of  what  comes  from  detaching  the  race 
from  God  as  Spirit,  or  from  His  spiritual  worship. 
This  is  the  view  which  the  apostle  gives  of  the  heathen 
world,  in  that  celebrated  passage  in  which  their  vices 
and  abominations  are  said  to  have  arisen  from  their 
ignoring  the  '  eternal  power  and  Godhead,'  which  are 
so  '  clearly  seen '  and  so  easily  '  understood  from  the 
things  that  are  made.'  '  Because  that,  when  they 
knew  God,  they  glorified  Him  not  as  God,  neither  were 
thankful ;  but  became  vain  in  their  imagination,  and 
their  foolish  heart  was  darkened.'1  Thus  heathendom- 
as  a  history,  including  its  worship  of  devils  and  its 
vices  against  nature,  is  an  outgrowth  of  the  seed-truths 
of  man  and  his  relations  on  which  the  inspired  writers 
so  largely  insist. 

And  when  we  turn  from  this  degraded  class  to  the 
great  actors  in  history,  what  do  we  meet  with  but  men 
expending  upon  ambition,  or  schemes  of  personal  power 
and  aggrandisement,  the  attributes  of  their  nature 
which  fit  them  to  aspire  after  glory,  honour,  and 
immortality  ?  But  for  a  soul  that  only  heaven  was 
made  to  fill,  how  could  there  have  been  so  wide  a 
grasp  upon  earthly  glory,  in  their  perversion,  as  we 
see  in  Alexander,  Caesar,  and  Napoleon  ?  Why  the 
miser's  far-reaching  plan  for  acquiring  what  he  can 
never  enjoy  but  in  imagination,  unless  born  for  a 
wider  field  of  action  and  possession  than  earth  can 
afford  ?  Indeed,  the  whole  life  of  man,  and  his  history 
from  the  beginning,  clearly  affirm  the  inspired  ideal  of 

1  Horn.  i.  20,  21. 
H 


H4  Seed-Truths. 

a  being  born  to  be  acted  upon  by  two  worlds,  but  by 
his  own  act  detached  from  the  greater  of  the  two,,  to 
expend  his  energies  upon  the  inferior  and  to  satisfy 
himself  with  its  husks. 

In  tracing  our  principles  to  their  results,  however, 
it  is  not  our  purpose  to  follow  in  the  track  of  general 
history,  but  to  notice  only  a  few  of  the  states  and 
transitions  to  which  they  have  given  rise,  together 
with  the  circumstances,  agencies,  and  powers  which 
God  has  set  on  foot  for  our  redemption.  The  whole 
process  of  innocence,  guilt,  and  punishment,  as  well  as 
the  means  of  restoring  the  race  to  holiness  and  heaven, 
is  studiously  adjusted  to  its  nature  and  its  inalienable 
prerogatives.  To  deal  with  man  otherwise  than  as  a 
free  moral  agent,  would  disqualify  him  alike  for  virtue 
and  for  vice,  for  sin  and  for  holiness.  Do  trees  grow 
by  persuasion,  or  moral  excellence  by  enriching  the 
soil  ?  The  treatment  must  correspond  to  the  nature, — 
a  rule  in  nothing  more  rigorously  adhered  to  than  in 
God's  dealings  with  men. 

The  great  burden  of  our  subsequent  chapters  lies  in 
the  direction  of  the  fleshly  life  which  we  have  fallen 
into,  and  its  demoniacal  possessions,  and  of  God's  plan 
for  breaking  it  up,  by  destroying  the  works  of  the  devil 
and  re-establishing  His  kingdom  here  below.  Ee- 
demption  is  not  an  abstraction  nor  a  doctrine,  though 
doctrines  are  used  in  prosecuting  it ;  not  an  organiza- 
tion, though,  like  life,  it  cannot  well  subsist  without 
it ;  but  it  is  a  great  fact  of  human  history  and 
experience.  The  Grecian  and  Roman  annals  are  not 
more  a  history.  It  is  a  power  set  on  foot  by  Heaven, 
wliich  has  gone  on  advancing  from  age  to  age, 
gathering  momentum  as  it  advanced,  and  adding  to 
the  elect  family  an  innumerable  host  out  of  every 


History  an  Outgrowth  of  Seed-  Truths.   115 

kingdom  and  nation  and  people  under  heaven,  over 
whom  Christ  is  enthroned  '  King  of  kings  and  Lord  of 
lords;  who  only  hath  immortality,  dwelling  in  light 
which  no  man  can  approach  unto ;  whom  no  man  hath 
seen,  nor  can  see :  to  whom  be  honour  and  power 


everlasting.     Amen/ 1 


1 1  Tim.  vi.  !«. 


CHAPTER    XII. 

HAPPINESS  OF  BEING  RULED  BY  SPIRIT. 

THE  right  use  of  a  thing  is  the  happy  use  of  it. 
A  machine  with  all  its  parts  in  their  place,  and 
doing  their  office,  is  in  its  highest  state  of  efficiency 
and  usefulness.  And  our  bodies  are  in  their  greatest 
health  and  comfort  when  their  organs  and  fluids  and 
processes  each  performs  its  function  and  ministers  its 
due  share  to  the  general  result.  So  of  our  minds.  When 
those  powers  are  in  the  ascendency  which  have  an 
inherent  right  to  control,  we  have  repose  ;  but  when 
we  are  borne  away  by  blind  impulse,  misery  is  sure  to 
ensue.  Even  in  the  natural  man  reason  is  a  safer 
guide  than  appetite,  and  conscience  than  passion  ; 
because  that  is  their  office,  and  the  more  our  impulses 
are  subjected  to  their  ruling,  the  greater  our  success  in 
all  that  concerns  our  worldly  affairs.  But  when  God, 
a  spiritual  world,  future  retribution  and  immortality, 
are  brought  into  consideration,  what  madness  to  ignore 
them,  or  to  subordinate  them  to  our  momentary  lusts 
and  pleasures  ! 

It  is  not  of  spiritual  ruling  as  truth  to  the  reason 
that  we  now  speak,  but  truth  wrought  into  the  afl'ec- 
tions  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  If  the  whole  subject-matter 
of  divine  revelation  were  before  a  man's  mind  in  his 
natural  state,  and  he  were  required  to  shape  his  life 
by  it  as  a  merchant  his,  by  figuring  up  the  results  of 

116 


Happiness  of  being  ruled  by  Spirit.      117 

his  business,  could  he  do  it  ?  Is  not  something  more 
than  spiritual  truth  as  an  idea  necessary  to  make  it  a 
power  in  the  soul  ?  A  critic  in  art  may  be  no  artist. 
One  who  writes  beautifully  on  the  domestic  affections 
may  be  morose  as  a  tiger  in  his  own  family.  So  one 
may  expatiate  eloquently  on  the  doctrines  of  the  Bible, 
and  yet  be  destitute  of  their  real  power.  Spiritual 
ruling  is  like  natural  ruling  in  this,  that  it  is  not  a 
thing  of  mere  calculation,  but  of  affectional  influence 
and  soul-power.  The  natural  world  acts  upon  thou- 
sands through  their  senses,  who  know  very  little  of 
it  as  a  matter  of  science.  Maternal  love  is  out  of 
all  proportion  to  the  theory  of  it  existing  in  the  mind. 
Indeed,  affection  in  human  nature  at  large,  is,  like  a 
mill-pond  to  its  narrow  confined  flume,  a  vast  reserved 
force  of  which  but  a  little  escapes  through  the  vent 
of  logical  ideas  or  intellectual  truths.  It  is  the  great 
ruling  power  in  history. 

So,  in  speaking  of  a  spiritual  ruling,  we  include 
much  more  than  truths  from  the  spiritual  world. 
Truths  are  indeed  the  flume  through  which  '  the  water 
that  springeth  up  into  everlasting  life'1  flows  in  upon 
our  souls ;  but  that  water  is  a  fountain  of  holy  affec- 
tions flowing  out  in  love  to  God,  good-will  to  men, 
and  spreading  fertility  and  beauty  over  a  landscape 
otherwise  arid  and  waste.  Grace  as  a  ruling  power 
in  the  soul  is  this  added  affectional  influx  from  God,  by 
which  He  accompanies  His  truths  to  our  minds ;  and 
our  Lord  has  it  in  view  when  He  prays,  'Sanctify  tliem 
through  Thy  truth:  Thy  word  is  truth.'2  The  truth 
is  here  contemplated  as  the  means  by  which  the  puri- 
fication of  the  affections  was  to  be  reached.  It  is  the 
sword  by  which  the  Spirit  cuts  off  God's  enemies  of 

1  Jolm  iv.  14.  2  Jolin  xvii.  17. 


u8  Seed-TnMs. 

lust,  unbelief,  malignity,  and  worldliness  in  our  souls, 
and  prepares  the  way  for  His  army  of  graces  and  holy 
affections.1 

Nearly  all  attempts  to  treat  theology  as  a  science 
are  a  failure,  as  in  painting  fire  you  can  get  every- 
thing but  the  heat.  That  wanting,  and  what  have 
you  in  the  picture  to  convey  an  idea  of  fire  to  one  who 
had  never  seen  or  felt  it  ?  Grace  as  favour,  grace  as 
a  theory,  grace  in  the  schools, — what  is  it  as  compared 
with  grace  in  the  heart  ?  It  is  the  life  that  escapes 
the  surgeon's  knife  in  his  attempts  to  search  it  out. 
As  men  call  do  nothing  without  affection,  and  that  is 
the  great  power  that  binds  them  to  their  sins,  so  how 
are  they  to  be  detached  and  brought  under  spiritual 
ruling,  except  by  the  counteracting  force  of  divine  and 
heavenly  affections  ?  Now  grace  is  this  counteracting 
power  in  the  soul  'It  reigns  through  righteousness 
unto  eternal  life.'2  That  is,  by  restoring  spiritual 
ruling  over  the  fleshly  nature,  and  thus  setting  us 
right  with  God,  right  with  conscience,  and  right  in  all 
our  relations,  it  produces  a  new  sense  of  joy  and  de- 
light, that  so  satisfies  our  craving,  that  we  freely  accept 
it  in  exchange  for  the  -pleasures  of  sin.  Darkness 
may  be  pleasant  to  one  who  never  knew  anything 
better ;  but  let  him  have  light,  and  how  will  he  exult 
at  the  exchange !  A  fetid  atmosphere  may  be  agree- 
able to  vitiated  olfactories ;  but,  after  being  rectified 
by  inhaling  pure  air,  how  they  loathe  the  former 
stench  1  Such  is  the  reign  of  grace  in  the  soul  It 
is  the  corrective  of  vitiated  desires,  thus  reigning 
through  righteousness,  or  giving  a  new  and  right  bent 
to  the  soul's  pursuit  of  happiness.  Grace  came  with 
truth  by  Jesus  Christ,  or  He  provided,  by  His  mission, 
1  E|»h.  vi.  17.  '  Rom.  v.  21. 


Happiness  of  being  ruled  by  Spirit.       1 1 9 

to  impart  to  us  a  new  affecfcional  bent  as  well  as  a 
new  order  of  belief,  and  thus  to  make  us  altogether 
new.1 

We  stand  related  to  a  spiritual  the  same  as  to  a 
natural  universe,  but  had  lost  a  due  sense  of  the  for- 
mer, and  were  solely  occupied  with  the  latter.  So  far 
as  spirit  acted  upon  us  at  all,  it  was  that  of  'the  prince 
of  the  power  of  the  air'  exercising  dominion  over  the 
disobedient.  And  to  be  restored,  we  must  not  only 
know  spiritual  truths,  but  we  must  accept  them  by  a 
'  faith  working  by  love'2  as  our  chosen  guide  in  all 
things ;  and  they  must  become  even  more  real  to  us 
than  anything  in  our  outward  life ;  and  not  only  more 
real,  but  infinitely  more  desirable.  "Was  not  the  spi- 
ritual world  infinitely  greater  to  our  Master  than  this 
earthly  world  ?  Were  not  His  joy  and  His  peace  from 
this  higher  source  ?  And  if  we  are  in  conjunction 
with  heaven,  will  it  not  be  the  same  with  us  ?  '  He 
that  findeth  his  life  shall  lose  it ;  and  he  that  loseth 
his  life  for  my  sake  shall  find  it.'3 

We  will  not  here  stay  to  describe  the  process  by 
which  a  soul  comes  into  this  state  of  deadness  to  the 
world  and  life  in  God,  but  proceed  at  once  to  consider 
the  ineffable  blessedness  of  it.  '  Take  my  yoke  upon 
you,  and  learn  of  me ;  for  I  am  meek  and  lowly  in 
heart:  and  ye  shall  find  rest  unto  your  souls.'  '  Peace 
I  leave  with  you,  my  peace  I  give  unto  you.'4  '  We 
which  have  believed  do  enter  into  rest,'  that  is,  as  a 
matter  of  present  experience.  '  Thou  keepest  him  in 
perfect  peace,  whose  mind  is  stayed  on  Thee ;  because 
he  trusteth  in  Thee.'5  Passages  of  this  kind  might  be 


1  John  i.  17  ;  2  Cor.  v.  17.  2  Gal.  v.  6. 

3  Matt.  x.  39.  *  Matt.  xi.  29  ;  John  xiv.  27. 

6  Heb.  iv.  3  ;  Isa.  xxvi  3. 


1 20  Seed-  Truths. 

multiplied,  showing  the  sense  of  profound  repose  which 
arises  from  feeling  ourselves  restored  to  God's  ruling 
within  us.  'It  is  a  peace  that  passeth  all  understand- 
ing/1— too  deep  to  be  fathomed,  too  expanded  to  be 
measured,  too  enduring  ever  to  end,  and  too  high  to  stop 
short  of  the  throne  of  God.  It  is  God's  peace.  This 
peace  which  Jesus  had  under  all  His  sufferings,  He 
bequeathed  to'  us  at  His  death ;  and  the  inheritance  is 
sure  to  all  who  learn  of  Him  lessons  of  meekness  and 
lowliness,  to  all  who  wear  His  yoke  or  live  under  the 
ruling  of  His  Spirit. 

With  what  gladness  and  singleness  of  heart  did  the 
disciples  eat  their  meat,  when  they  came  at  Pentecost 
under  God's  own  dominion !  It  was  not  a  kingdom  of 
meat  and  drink;  not  of  exactitude  in  the  matter  of 
external  rites ;  not  of  creeds  and  definitions  ;  not  of  sa- 
cerdotal orders  or  sacred  vestments, — but  of  'righteous- 
ness, and  peace,  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost.'  Heaven 
drops  down  the  dews  of  grace,  and  all  beautiful  flowers 
and  fruits  respond  with  fragrance  and  with  joy. 

'  To  humbleness  of  heart  descends 

This  prescience  from  on  high, 
The  faith  that  elevates  the  just 

Before  and  when  they  die  ; 
And  makes  each  soul  a  separate  heaven, 
A  court  for  Deity.' — "WoiiDswoiiTH. 

'  I  will  greatly  rejoice  in  the  Lord ;  my  soul  shall  be 
joyful  in  my  God/     'The  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  love, 
joy,  peace.'     There  was  great  joy  among  a  people  \ 
whom  the  Spirit  was  working  in   ]>n\vn,  as  in  the  re- 
vival at  Sam  an; i.2    Such  expressions  in  a  great  variety 

1  Phil,  iv.  7. 

?  Phil.  iv.  4;  Isa.  IxL  10;  Rom.  xiv.  17;  Gal.  v.  22;  Acts  viii.  8; 
1  ivt.  i.  8. 


Happiness  of  being  ruled  by  Spirit.      121 

of  forms  and  circumstances  constitute  a  noticeable 
future  of  revealed  religion.  The  Lord  was  a  sun  and 
shield  in  the  view  of  its  writers,  giving  them  grace  and 
glory,  and  withholding  no  good  thing ;  to  whom  it  was 
ever  in  their  hearts  to  say,  '  Whom  have  I  in  heaven 
but  Thee  ?  and  there  is  none  upon  earth  that  I  desire 
besides  Thee.'1  Their  faith  was  a  fountain  of  happiness. 
It  gave  them  songs  even  in  the  night  of  their  cala- 
mities. The  inflowing  of  God's  spiritual  influence  to 
the  soul  is  like  the  form  of  the  Fourth  walking  un- 
harmed in  the  midst  of  the  fiery  furnace,  and  giving 
protection  to  those  entrusted  to  His  care.  As  we  have 
seen,  Jesus,  though  a  man  of  sorrow,  had  no  brighter 
jewel  to  leave  with  His  Church  on  earth  than  His  peace. 
His  holy  soul,  like  the  sea,  was  quiet  at  bottom, 
however  tossed  by  winds  on  its  surface.  So  the 
apostles  were  joyful  in  all  their  tribulations,  confi- 
dently saying,  '  Who  shall  separate  us  from  the  love  of 
Christ  ?  Shall  tribulation,  or  distress,  or  persecution, 
or  famine,  or  nakedness,  or  peril,  or  sword  ?  Nay,  in 
all  these  things  we  are  more  than  conquerors  through 
Him  that  loved  us/  Their  trials  made  their  graces 
only  the  more  illustrious,  producing  patience,  experi- 
ence, and  hope,  and  thus  intensifying  their  joy  in  God. 
It  acted  as  heat  upon  gold,  to  render  them  purer  and 
more  brilliant,  fitting  them  for  'praise,  and  honour,  and 
glory,  at  the  appearing  of  Jesus  Christ.'  The  pro- 
phet's song  is  a  celebration  of  this  joyful  influence 
from  heaven  under  the  privations  of  this  life.  'Al- 
though the  fig-tree  shall  not  blossom,  neither  shall  fruit 
be  in  the  vines ;  the  labour  of  the  olive  shall  fail,  and 
the  fields  shall  yield  no  meat ;  the  flocks  shall  be  cut 
off  from  the  fold,  and  there  shall  be  no  herd  in  the 
1  Ps.  Ixxiii.  25,  Ixxxiv.  11. 


122  Seed-  Truths. 

stalls :  yet  I  will  rejoice  in  the  Lord,  I  will  joy  in  the 
God  of  my  salvation.'1 

Millions  since  the  ages  of  inspiration  have  testified 
to  the  happy  effect  of  coming  under  the  Spirit's  ruling. 
Says  Augustine,  '  By  a  light,  as  it  were  of  serenity,  in- 
fused into  my  heart,  all  darkness  and  doubts  vanished 
from  my  mind.'2  Edwards,  about  twelve  hundred 
years  after  Augustine's  time,  bears  similar  testimony. 
'  I  found  from  time  to  time/  he  says,  'an  inward  sweet- 
ness that  would  carry  me  away  in  my  contemplations. 
This  I  know  not  how  to  express  otherwise,  than  by  a 
calm,  sweet  abstraction  of  soul  from  all  the  concerns 
of  this  world ;  and  sometimes  a  kind  of  vision,  or  fixed 
ideas  and  imaginations,  of  being  alone  in  the  moun- 
tains or  solitary  wilderness,  far  from  mankind,  sweetly 
conversing  with  Christ.  This  sense  of  divine  things 
would  often  of  a  sudden  kindle  up,  as  it  were,  a  sweet 
burning  in  my  heart — an  ardour  of  soul  that  I  know 
not  how  to  express/8  These  two  men  were  giants 
of  intellect  as  well  as  of  faith ;  and  their  testimony, 
though  no  truer  than  that  of  millions  of  others  before 
and  since  their  respective  ages,  may  be  thought  to 
have  the  greater  weight. 

Now  these  facts  accord  with  Moses'  account  of  man's 
primeval  E^en,  showing  that  the  same  law  obtained 
as  to  the  effect  of  the  Spirit's  ruling  in  the  first 
innocence  of  the  race,  as  in  its  redemption  to  holiness 
by  Jesus  Christ.  So  far  as  the  garden  of  God  was  a 
scene  of  fountains,  flowers,  fruits,  and  shady  groves,  or 
of  external  beauty,  it  was  so,  not  for  its  own  sake,  but 
for  the  man  for  whom  it  was  provided,  or  as  a  reflec- 

1  Job  xxxv.  10  ;  Dan.  iii.  25  ;  2  Cor.  vii.  4 ;   Rom.  v.  3,  4,  viii. 
85-37  -.  1   ivt.  i.  7  ;   Il;ib.  iii.  17,  18. 
1  Memoirs,  p.  167.  8  Complete  Works,  vol.  i.  p.  19. 


Happiness  of  being  rzded  by  Spirit.      123 

tion  of  his  blissful  life  in  the  companionship  of  God 
and  angels.  It  was  the  abode  of  heaven  upon  earth, 
and  a  symbol  of  heavenly  life.  Wherever  there  is  a 
human  soul  in  which  God  has  set  up  His  throne,  there 
is  a  garden  of  Eden,  there  flows  the  water  of  the  river 
of  life,  and  there  is  the  tree  of  life  in  the  midst 
thereof.  The  secret  of  his  paradise  is  in  being  right 
with  God,  right  with  himself,  and  right  in  all  his 
relations.  The  spirit  rules  the  flesh,  and  not  the  flesh 
the  spirit. 

'  The  Lord  God  planted  a  garden  eastward  of  Eden ; 
and  there  He  put  the  man  whom  He  had  formed.'  The 
place  was  made  for  the  occupants,  and  without  them 
it  could  not  have  existed.  A  material  garden,  great 
as  may  be  its  delights,  would  come  utterly  short  of 
Moses'  description.  Spiritual  men  have  always  re- 
garded Eden  as  more  than  an  outward  fact.  It  sets 
forth  the  infinitely  varied  and  beautiful  truths,  the 
accordant  feelings,  the  heavenly  joys,  and  divine  com- 
munion, which,  in  the  person  of  man,  had  been  dropped 
among  the  elements  of  this  earthly  world.  It  is  the 
light  in  which  pictures  are  seen  that  brings  out  their 
beauty.  It  is  the  spiritual  medium  through  which 
things  are  contemplated  that  sheds  upon  them  the 
glories  of  heaven.  The  earth,  the  mountains,  the 
wilderness,  the  visible  heavens,  the  course  of  provi- 
dence, and  even  the  judgments  of  God,  become  to  one 
in  the  spirit  of  Edwards  a  scene  of  transporting 
contemplation.  'Alleluia:  for  the  Lord  God  omni- 
potent reigneth,' 1  is  a  psean  of  praise  that  finds  thence 
its  inspiration. 

Had  no  mind  or  moral  forces  been  reflected  from 
Eden,  but  only  brutal  instincts  or  material  delights, 
1  Kev.  xix.  6. 


124  Seed-Truths. 

think  you  it  would  have  found  a  record  in  God's 
word  ?  No ;  an  inner  man,  with  his  immortal  powers, 
capabilities,  and  associations,  must  have  looked  out 
upon  nature  and  read  the  Divinity  in  all  its  lines, 
and  felt  Him  in  all  its  events,  to  make  it  a  scene  of 
joyousness  and  of  beauty,  and  a  field  for  spiritual 
expatiation,  or  Eden  would  have  been  what  the  golden 
age  is  in  the  dreams  of  the  poets, — a  thing  of  imagina- 
tion, the  mirage  of  a  sentimental  hallucination  skirting 
the  horizon  of  the  past.  What  a  poor  representation 
of  man's  primeval  abode  are  the  groves,  fountains,  and 
voluptuous  delights  by  which  the  Oriental  monarchs 
sought  to  reproduce  it !  The  cottage  is  often  more  an 
Eden  than  the  palace,  because  it  is  the  seat  of  love  and 
devout  affections,  while  malignity,  hatred,  and  hell  are 
found  in  many  a  gilded  hall  and  flowery  garden.  The 
rustic  couple,  living  in  piety  and  faith,  are  truer  suc- 
cessors of  Adam  and  Eve  than  those  who  dwell  in 
kingly  and  queenly  state. 

This  glorious  planting  of  God,  so  far  as  it  was 
outward,  was  the  seeding  of  truths  far  more  vital 
than  anything  in  itself.  Every  tree,  every  leaf,  every 
ripening  fig,  orange,  grape,  apple,  and  pomegranate, 
glowed  with  the  sunlight  of  heaven.  It  was  a  record 
of  God,  and  could  be  read  by  the  spiritual  primeval 
man  without  book  or  reasoning.  God  spoke  through 
it  to  his  heart.  The  divine  love,  truth,  holiness,  and 
all-pervading  presence  were  revealed  to  him  in  every- 
thing. In  this  respect  Adam's  experience  was  but  the 
prototype  of  that  of  every  truly  spiritual  man :  God  iu 
everything,  God  everywhere,  God  always  delightfully 
near, — this  is  the  feeling.  This  feeling  made  Eden 
what  it  was,  and  obtained  for  it  a  place  in  the  inspired 
record.  It  shows  what  man  was  and  is  under  the 


Happiness  of  being  ruled  by  Spirit.       125 

ruling  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  With  no  nature  to  be  thus 
ruled,  material  beauties  enough  could  not  have  been 
brought  together  to  invite  the  visit  of  angels,  or  to 
have  sat  for  the  picture  of  man's  primeval  innocence. 
A  golden  age  is  a  delusion  of  the  past,  except  as 
realized  in  the  human  soul  radiant  with  heavenly  light ; 
and  with  that  it  is  equally  a  reality  of  the  present. 

Hence  the  paradise  of  the  New  Testament  is  a 
reproduction  of  the  Eden  of  the  old.  It  is  applied  to 
that  heavenly  world  into  which  Paul  was  caught  up, 
where  he  'heard  unspeakable  words,  which  it  is  not 
lawful  for  a  man  to  utter.'1  This  was  wholly  a 
spiritual  scene,  and  so  far  exceeding  all  material  re- 
presentation, that  it  is  not  lawful  to  attempt  to  utter 
or  depict  it  in  that  form.  Moses'  imagery  of  Eden,  in 
the  first  chapters  of  the  Bible,  is  applied  by  John,  in 
the  last  chapters  of  Eevelation,  to  the  New  Jerusalem, 
which  also  had  its  'pure  river  of  the  water  of  life  pro- 
ceeding out  of  the  throne  of  God  and  the  Lamb,' 
answering  to  that  which  watered  Adam's  garden,  and 
which  '  became  into  four  heads.'  *  In  the  midst  of  the 
street  of  it,  and  on  either  side  of  the  river,  was  there 
the  tree  of  life,  which  bare  twelve  manner  of  fruits, 
and  yielded  her  fruit  every  month :  and  the  leaves  of 
the  tree  were  for  the  healing  of  nations.'  2  Thus  the 
earliest  and  latest  records  of  inspiration  contain  like 
thoughts  and  like  imagery,  showing  that  they  were 
united  in  the  same  immutable  and  eternal  spiritual 
truth  ;  that  the  beatification  of  man  in  his  original 
innocency,  of  man  in  a  state  of  sanctifi cation  on  earth, 
and  of  man  as  glorified  in  heaven,  has  one  basis, — the 
absolute  enthronement  of  God  in  his  soul.  This  is 
the  holy  of  holies  where  God  has  His  throne,  where 

1  2  Cor.  xii.  4.  *  Gen.  ii.  9,  10 ;  Rev.  xxii.  1,  2. 


126  Seed-  Truths. 

His  laws  are  deposited,  and  His  rod  of  authority  ever 
buds  and  blooms.  The  same  fountain  of  truth  and 
love  flowing  from  God  refreshes  the  inhabitants  in  each 
of  these  states,  and  the  same  tree  of  life  supplies  them 
with  its  fruits. 

God's  spiritual  reign  over  man  is  as  much  a  fact 
of  primeval  Eden  as  of  New  Jerusalem.  As  Cousin 
justly  says,  '  When  affection  has  conquered  selfishness, 
instead  of  loving  its  object  for  its  own  sake,  the  soul 
gives  itself  to  its  object,  and — miracle  of  love  ! — the  more 
it  gives  the  more  it  possesses,  notching  itself  by  its 
own  sacrifices,  and  finds  its  strength  in  its  own  self- 
abandonment.  But  there  is  only  one  Being  worthy  of 
being  thus  loved,  and  who  can  be  thus  loved  without 
illusions,  and  without  mistakes,  at  once  without  limits, 
and  without  regret, — to  wit,  the  perfect  Being  who 
alone  does  not  fear  reflection,  who  alone  can  fill  the 
entire  capacity  of  our  hearts.' * 

'  The  tree  of  knowledge  of  good  and  evil ' 2  points  to 
a  state  wherein  ideas,  reasonings,  aspirations,  and  self- 
consciousness  abate  the  simplicity  and  entireness  of 
our  love  and  devotion  to  God,  and  which,  without 
questioning  and  without  doubt,  give  Him  the  first 
place.  Knowledge  is  of  the  outer  man,  divine  love  of 
the  inner  man ;  and  the  triumph  of  the  former  at  the 
expense  of  the  latter  as  a  motive-influence  with  us, 
ruling  our  willa,  is  the  inlet  to  evil,  the  opening  of 
hell  to  the  soul  of  man.  As,  in  the  experience  of  the 
most  of  us,  the  period  of  undoubting  filial  love  and 
confidence  was  the  golden  period  of  our  life,  as  com- 
pared with  the  succeeding  distrust  which  followed  from 
our  own  waywardness  or  the  discovery  of  parental 
defects;  so  unreasoning  faith  in  God  does  infinitely 

»  Lecture*,  i>.  108.  *  Gen.  ii.  17. 


Happiness  of  being  ruled  by  Spirit.      127 

more  to  make  our  lives  golden  and  beautiful,  than  any 
of  the  inventions  of  our  self-reliant  reason  or  imper- 
tinent speculations.  Seeking  to  know  from  the  pride 
of  knowing,  exercising  our  intellects  with  a  view  to 
worldly  pre-eminence,  or  to  make  ourselves  independent 
of  divine  guidance,  is  '  the  tree  that  brought  death  into 
the  world  and  all  our  woe/ 

The  word  of  God  can  never  have  its  proper  effect 
upon  us,  while  we  think  of  its  sketches  merely  as 
things  of  the  past,  and  remote  from  us  as  events  of 
another  planet.  We  must  feel  that  they  apply  equally 
to  ourselves  as  to  any  preceding  generation.  The  laws 
of  animal  life  are  not  more  identical  to  every  generation 
than  those  of  spiritual  life.  Adam  lived  by  eating  and 
drinking,  the  same  as  we  do.  He  was  not  more  bound 
to  follow  God's  leading  than  we  are  ;  nor  was  its  aban- 
donment to  enjoy  forbidden  gratifications  more  fatal  to 
him  than  to  us.  All  seed-truths  are  the  same  to  us  as 
to  him.  He  was  happy  in  right  living,  and  miserable  in 
wrong  living ;  and  so  are  we.  His  harmony  with  God 
and  holy  angels  made  his  Eden ;  and  if  we  love  and 
trust  '  Him  whom  we  have  not  seen,  we  also  rejoice 
with  joy  unspeakable  and  full  of  glory.'  *  Our  modes 
of  coming  into  these  blessed  relations  with  God  are 
different,  and  so  is  our  nature  as  affected  by  sin ;  but 
our  happiness  equally  has  a  spiritual,  holy,  and  heavenly 
foundation.  It  comes  from  the  ruling  of  God  in  our 
souls. 

* 1  Pet.  i.  8. 


CHAPTER   XTTTT 

HOW  HEAVEN  IS  LOST. 

THE  reign  of  God  in  the  soul  constitutes  its  heaven, 
in  reference  to  which  our  Lord  speaks  of  Him- 
self while  on  earth  as  '  the  Son  of  man  who  is  in 
heaven.'  He  brought  with  Him  heavenly  life  in  the 
perfection  of  His  character,  and  imparted  it  to  His 
devoted  followers,  insomuch  that  '  the  kingdom  of  God 
was  said  to  he  within  them.'  It  was  a  state  of  grace 
and  salvation,  in  which  is  realized  the  answer  of  the 
prayer,  '  Thy  kingdom  come  ;  Thy  will  be  done  on  earth 
as  in  heaven.' 1  God's  kingdom  comes  in  the  sancti- 
fication  of  the  Church  as  a  means  to  its  glorification. 
It  is  the  reign  of  heaven  in  individual  souls  of  which 
we  now  speak. 

Now  this  heaven  of  the  soul  consists  alike  of  sub- 
mission to  God  in  the  primeval  man,  in  the  sanctified 
on  earth,  and  the  glorified  above.  It  has  its  subordi- 
nate varieties,  but  the  principle  is  the  same.  In  the 
primeval  man  it  was  innocence;  in  the  saints  it  is 
growth  in  grace ;  in  the  glorified  it  is  grace  perfected. 
It  is  a  heaven  in  which  God  is  the  sun  ruling  all  the 
] -Juiiets,  satellites,  and  asteroids  of  thought  and  desire, 
and  all  the  active  powers,  whether  of  the  outward  or 
inward  man.  This  is  the  only  source  of  their  harmony, 

1  John  iii.  13 ;  Matt.  v.  3,  19,  20,  vi.  10,  xi.  11,  12  ;  Luke  xvi.  16, 
xvii.  21. 

128 


How  Heaven  is  Lost.  129 

and  a  necessary  condition  of  heaven.  '  The  meek  shall 
inherit  the  earth/  '  Godliness  has  the  promise  of  the 
life  that  now  is/  and  '  the  hundredfold  more  in  the 
present  time  to  those  who  forsake  all  for  the  gospel/ 
are  promises  which  have  their  fulfilment,  not  in  the 
abundance  of  the  things  of  this  life,  but  in  the  heaven 
of  divine  love,  educing  the  greatest  good  from  earth, 
and  ending  in  '  a  far  more  exceeding  and  eternal  weight 
of  glory.' *  Such  is  the  Bible  representation  of  God's 
ruling  in  the  soul ;  and  it  must  be  accepted,  however 
it  conflicts  with  the  experience  of  those  who  claim  to 
be  subjects  of  the  divine  kingdom.  This  is  God's  truth, 
already  realized  in  the  faith  of  some,  and  not  to  be 
invalidated  by  the  unbelief  of  others. 

In  all  these  cases  of  beatification,  the  state  of  the 
soul  in  relation  to  God,  and  not  its  location,  is  the 
great  point  insisted  upon  by  the  inspired  writers.  The 
mansions  of  our  Father's  house  are  '  prepared  '  for  those 
who  are  suited  to  them,  and  they  are  '  many/  as  adapted 
to  all  their  specific  varieties  or  degrees  in  glory.2  They 
are  a  paradise  of  redeeming  love,  as  Eden  was  of  pri- 
meval innocence, — the  occupants  determining  the  cha- 
racter of  the  dwelling,  and  not  the  dwelling  that  of  the 
occupants.  The  mind  shapes  the  body,  and  not  the 
body  the  mind;  and  hence,  in  idiocy,  the  body  loses 
its  comeliness.  No  greater  error  can  be  imagined,  than 
that  of  conceiving  of  heaven  as  a  place  to  go  to  to 
make  one  happy,  who  has  not  heaven  already  in  his 
own  soul.  Millions  of  deluded  men,  who  are  living  in 
vice  and  wickedness,  feel  sure  of  heaven,  on  the  ground 
of  extreme  unction  and  priestly  absolution.  Or  they 
have  once  had  certain  religious  experiences,  which, 

1  Matt.  v.  5,  1 9  ;  Mark  x.  29,  30  ;  1  Tim.  iv.  8. 

2  Julia  xiv.  1,  2  ;  1  Cor.  xv.  41,  42. 

I 


130  Seed-  Truths. 

though  now  dead,  and  unsustained  by  anything  in  their 
lives,  awaken  in  them  the  fallacious  hope  of  going  to  a 
heaven  of  which  they  have  not  a  single  element  in 
their  souls.  Alas  that  fictions  should  take  the  place 
of  facts  on  so  grave  a  subject,  or  that  heaven  should  be 
for  a  moment  thought  of  as  anything  but  God  the  all  in 
all  of  our  being  ! 

How  much  logic  has  been  from  first  to  last  wasted, 
to  explain  how  it  is  that  beings  in  the  heaven  of 
God's  ruling  should  of  their  own  accord  abandon  it, 
and  accept  hell  in  its  place  !  And  yet  do  we  not  see 
much  that  is  analogous  to  it  in  real  life  ?  How  many 
a  son  and  daughter,  husband  and  wife,  abandon  a 
happy  and  honourable  home  for  a  career  of  .infamy  and 
woe !  Such  defections  proceed  by  a  gradual  process  of 
specific  pleasures,  with  eyes  blinded  to  the  result,  which 
comes  as  a  final  retribution.  These  cases  in  men 
already  depraved  are,  indeed,  unlike  those  wherein  a 
heaven  of  perfect  innocence  and  bliss  is  abandoned  for 
the  guilt  and  misery  of  hell;  though  the  latter,  too, 
will  be  found,  on  examination,  to  be  a  choice  of  specific 
pleasures,  rather  than  of  the  final  result.  Temptation 
has  arisen  and  prospered  «ven  among  innocent  beings, 
if  the  Bible  is  to  be  believed.  How  could  this  have 
happened  ? 

The  difficulty  is  to  accept  the  scriptural  view  of  the 
soul,  as  independent  in  the  production  of  effects,  or  in 
originating  acts  of  praise  or  blame.  The  soul's  respon- 
sibility ends  where  necessity  begins.  From  this  re- 
mark, however,  must  be  excepted  the  incapacity  which 
arises  from  previous  acts  of  wrong,  just  as  a  criminal, 
though  incapable  of  being  innocent,  is  still  responsible 
for  his  guilt.  The  incapacity  of  a  .sinful  state  is  both 
our  guilt  and  our  punishment  But  how  can  a 


How  Heaven  is  Lost.  131 

transgression  in  one  previously  innocent  be  extenuated 
on  any  such  ground  ?  The  question  is  not  as  to  the 
incapacity  of  one  already  guilty  to  become  innocent, 
but  how  an  innocent  being  could  originate  a  sinful 
act  ?  It  seems  to  be  thought  by  some,  that  a  necessity 
of  some  sort,  such  as  that  of  the  strongest  motive,  for 
instance,  must  have  ruled  him.  As  Sir  William  Hamil- 
ton says,  '  Though  an  unconquerable  feeling  compels  us 
to  recognise  ourselves  as  accountable,  and  therefore  free 
agents,  still,  when  we  attempt  to  realize  in  thought 
how  the  fact  of  our  liberty  can  be,  we  soon  find  that 
this  altogether  transcends  our  understanding,  and  that 
every  attempt  to  bring  the  fact  of  liberty  within  the 
compass  of  our  conceptions  only  results  in  the  substi- 
tution in  its  place  of  some  more  or  less  disguised  form 
of  necessity.' * 

Reasoners  on  this  subject,  a  hundred  years  ago, 
thought  to  escape  the  difficulty  by  inventing  the  dis- 
tinction of  natural  and  moral  necessity.  Though  both 
are  alike  absolute  and  irreversible,  yet,  since  motive 
is  cause  in  moral  necessity,  and  physical  agencies  in 
natural  necessity,  therefore  the  actor  is  responsible. 
If  I  do  a  wicked  thing,  I  dp  it  from  motive,  and  am 
guilty ;  but  if  a  malarious  atmosphere  gives  me  a  fever, 
it  is  my  misfortune,  and  not  my  crime.  The  motive  as 
cause  is  not  blame  or  praiseworthy,  but  only  the  effect, 
or  the  act  resulting  from  the  motive.  Hence  God 
could  decree  a  motive  to  be  the  cause  of  sin,  without 
being  implicated  in  the  sin  itself.  Hopkins  and 
Emmons  2  were  not  satisfied  to  stop  here,  but  held 
that  God  creates  all  sinful  volitions  as  well  as  all  good 
ones,  in  the  same  sense  that  He  created  the  world. 

1  Metaphysics,  p.  24. 

2  Celebrated  American  divines  in  a  past  age. 


132  Seed-Truths. 

Still  He  is  not  implicated  in  their  guilt,  because  guilt 
is  not  in  the  creator  of  a  sinful  volition,  but  in  the 
one  who  exercises  it.  The  absurdity  of  the  conclusion 
has  exploded  the  reasoning;  and  though  many  hold 
moral  necessity  as  an  incontrovertible  axiom,  very  little 
use  is  made  of  it  in  our  religious  discussions.  We 
have  drifted  away  from  it  into  the  currents  of  modern 
thought,  and  are  out  at  sea,  while  we  suppose  ourselves 
still  moored  to  the  doctrine  of  necessity. 

The  moment  we  look  beyond  the  soul  itself  for  the 
cause  of  its  responsible  actions,  and  ascribe  them  to 
God,  to  the  strongest  motive,  or  to  some  influence  acting 
upon  the  will  to  necessitate  its  determinations,  we 
stumble  upon  '  the  supposition  that  acts  of  volition  are 
results  of  the  same  iron  necessity  which  determines 
the  phenomena  of  matter/  and  thus  '  we  subvert  the 
foundations  of  religion,  natural  and  revealed.' 1  The 
freedom  of  the  will  is  as  sure  to  us  as  our  own  exist- 
ence, and  yet  it  is  one  of  those  things  which  we  cannot 
formulate  in  thought ;  nor  can  our  volitions  be  reasoned 
about  as  effects,  like  those  produced  by  ordinary  causes. 
They  have  their  cause  in  the  man,  and  that  is  the  end 
of  it.  '  Lo,  this  only  have  I  found,  that  God  made 
man  upright ;  but  they  have  sought  out  many  inven- 
tions.' '  Let  no  man  say,  when  he  is  tempted,  I  am 
tempted  of  God ;  for  God  cannot  be  tempted  with 
evil,  neither  tempteth  He  any  man :  but  every  man  is 
tempted,  when  he  is  drawn  away  of  his  lusts^  and 
enticed.  Then,  when  lust  is  conceived,  it  bringeth 
forth  sin ;  and  sin,  when  it  is  finished,  bringeth  forth 
death.'2  No  more  reliable  account  of  the  origin  of  evil 
than  this  can  be  given. 

Men  are  called  gods,  in  reference,  no  doubt,  to  their 

1  Sir  W.  Hamilton'*  Milu^/ii/^icn,  pp.  21,  22.          *  Jas.  i.  1U-15. 


How  Heaven  is  Lost.  133 

resemblance  to  the  Divine  Being  in  this  moral  freedom 
of  originating  volition.  '  God  standeth  in  the  congre- 
gation of  the  righteous ;  He  ruleth  among  the  gods ;' 
that  is,  among  those  whose  prerogatives  were  like  His 
own.  '  Worship  Him,  all  ye  gods.'  *  Thou  shalt  not 
revile  the  gods,'  or  those  to  whom  the  word  of  God 
came,  as  interpreted  by  our  Lord,  who  justifies  this 
application  of  the  term.  It  was  also  said  by  the  pro- 
phet to  the  idols,  '  Do  good,  or  do  evil,  that  we  may 
know  that  ye  are  gods,'  involving  the  idea  that  to  act 
voluntarily  constituted  likeness  to  the  freedom  of  the 
Divine  Mind.1  This  likeness  of  the  soul  to  God  in 
the  freedom  of  action  is  our  sole  clue  to  the  divine 
character ;  for  we  can  have  no  conception  of  Him  as 
an  Almighty  Intelligence,  except  as  we  take  the  idea 
from  the  attributes  of  our  own  mind.  We  never  think 
of  our  acts  as  necessitated  by  something  going  before 
or  apart  from  our  voluntary  agency ;  but  the  sense  of 
responsibility  as  the  sole  originators  of  them,  inheres 
in  us  in  spite  of  all  our  reasonings  to  the  contrary. 
And  as  we  cannot  feel  our  acts  to  be  necessitated 
except  by  ourselves,  so  we  cannot  think  of  God  as 
necessitated  in  what  He  does,  except  by  His  own  sove- 
reign pleasure.  If  it  were  otherwise,  and  we  could 
think  of  any  prior  cause  as  necessitating  our  own  acts, 
we  should  think  the  same  of  God  ;  and  the  result  would 
be  a  ruler  of  the  universe  ruled  by  Fate  as  the  highest 
source  of  power,  the  real  Divinity,  to  which  the  homage 
of  all  hearts  is  due.  Thus  moral  necessity,  by  imperious 
laws  of  logic,  ends  in  natural  necessity,  and  Pantheism 
or  Positivism  is  the  unavoidable  issue. 

In  Scripture,  all  ideas  of  moral  responsibility  ter- 
minate in  the  soul  itself  as  an  independent  cause-pro- 

1  Ps.  Ixxxii.  1,  6,  cxxxviii.  1;  Isa.  xli.  23;  Ex.  xxii.  28;  John  x.  34,  35, 


134  Seed-  Truths. 

ducer,  and  not  in  anything  outside  of  itself.  "Within 
the  limit  of  its  free  voluntary  agency  it  is  absolute 
and  supreme,  as  we  have  already  seen ;  no  power  being 
able  to  trespass  upon  it  against  its  will  Within  that 
limit  lie  all  its  moral  responsibilities,  as  the  inspired 
writers  abundantly  teach.  '  It  is  accepted  of  a  man 
according  to  what  he  hath,  and  not  according  to  what 
he  hath  not/  '  Tor  unto  whomsoever  much  is  given, 
of  him  shall  much  be  required.'1  '  It  is  only  as  man 
is  a  free  intelligence,  a  moral  power,  that  he  is  created 
in  the  image  of  God ;  and  it  is  only  as  a  spark  of 
divinity  glows  as  the  life  of  our  life  in  us,  that  we  can 
rationally  believe  in  an  Intelligent  Creator,  a  Moral 
Governor  of  the  universe.'  2 

Still,  absolute  as  man  is  in  his  own  domain,  he  is 
subject  to  a  law  which  cannot  fail  to  hold  him  under 
God's  authority, — if  not  by  precept,  then  by  penalty. 
The  precept  and  penalty  are  both  alike  inseparable  from 
man's  nature.  They  are  a  part  of  his  constitution  as 
a  free  moral  agent.  A  man  is  free  to  take  poison,  but 
will  not  the  penalty  of  the  wrong  act  be  sure  to  follow  ? 
If  the  precept  enjoining  or  interdicting  an  act  fails  to 
secure  our  obedience,  then  the  penalty  takes  effect  to 
hold  us  still  under  God's  authority.  Both  are  a  sweet 
savour  unto  God,  the  one  of  life  unto  life,  and  the  other 
of  death  unto  death.  God's  authority  is  maintained  in 
both  cases ;  and  so  He  does  not  lose  His  power  of 
control  over  us  by  reason  of  our  freedom.  It  is  not  a 
control,  however,  which  consists  in  an  an- ing  the  causes 
of  crime,  nor  in  creating  the  sinful  volition,  as  some 
have  supposed,  but  in  leaving  our  nature  to  work  out 
its  own  destiny.  In  that  the  divine  authority  is  sufti- 

1  2  Cor.  viii.  12  ;  Luke  xii.   10. 

1  Sir  Win.  Hamilton's  Mtluj'/tysiet,  pp.  21,  22. 


How  Heaven  is  Lost.  135 

ciently  secured.  Moral  freedom,  therefore,  does  not 
involve  a  power  to  escape  from  under  the  government 
of  God,  who  reigns  as  absolute  in  hell  as  in  heaven, 
and  by  the  same  love  too ;  though  in  the  one  case  it  is 
commuted  into  wrath,  and  in  the  other  into  unspeak- 
able bliss  and  glory.  The  difference  is  not  in  the 
authority,  but  in  the  soul-powers  of  those  upon  whom 
it  is  exercised,  just  as  the  excellence  of  a  government 
is  as  fatal  to  the  disobedient  as  it  is  happifying  to 
the  obedient.  God  needs  no  fines,  imprisonments,  or 
overt  punishments,  because  His  laws  work  out  their 
appropriate  results  by  the  very  constitution  of  a  moral 
agent. 

Now,  temptations  to  evil  in  holy  men,  or  in  a  state 
of  primeval  innocence,  are,  like  rewards  and  punish- 
ments, the  outworking  of  their  faculties  while  in  a 
state  of  trial.  They  arise  from  specific  impulses  which 
are  perfectly  innocent  in  themselves,  each  tending 
towards  undue  indulgence,  in  which  alone  the  wrong 
exists.  These  specific  impulses  impose  upon  the  man 
the  duty  of  duly  balancing  one  against  another,  and  of 
subordinating  all  to  God's  spiritual  reign  in  his  soul. 
This  is  therefore  the  duty,  and  this  the  law  of  duty. 
Animals  are  led  by  instinct  to  regulate  their  faculties, 
— eating,  sleeping,  and  living  as  their  condition  and 
the  necessity  of  their  nature  require.  But  reason 
and  conscience  supply  in  man  the  place  of  instinct 
in  animals,  wherein  God  reveals  His  spiritual  truths 
as  '  a  light  to  our  feet  and  a  lamp  to  our  path.' l  Our 
souls  are  open  to  God  and  the  realm  of  spirits  on  the 
one  hand,  supplying  a  peculiar  and  distinct  law  of 
thought,  feeling,  and  action ;  and  to  the  realm  of  nature 
on  the  other,  from  which  we  derive  ideas  and  impulses 
1  Ps.  cxix.  105. 


136  Seed-  Truths. 

equally  peculiar,  but  requiring  always  to  be  subordi- 
nated to  the  former.  We  converse  with  the  first 
through  faith,  and  with  the  other  through  sense  ;  in 
the  one  case  acting  as  seeing  invisible  truths,  and  in 
the  other  as  affected  by  the  visible  and  the  tangible. 
Spirit  in  conscience,  and  flesh  in  appetites,  passions, 
and  worldly  ideas,  are  the  two  forces  that  unite  in  our 
moral  agency  to  constitute  our  duty  and  our  law  of 
duty.  These  are  the  facts,  beyond  which  we  cannot 
go,  any  more  than  we  can  go  beyond  properties  and 
attributes  in  our  natural  sciences. 

A  moral  agent  could  no  more  exist  without  these 
conditions,  than  pleasure  and  pain  without  sensibility. 
Reason  is  nothing  without  occasions  for  its  exercise. 
Conscience  is  nothing,  except  as  connected  with  some- 
thing to  be  regulated  by  it.  A  metallic  hand  is  a 
watch-regulator,  only  as  part  of  a  watch  to  be  regulated 
by  it.  The  authority  of  God  could  be  nothing  to  us, 
except  as  the  enforcement  of  a  law  of  duty  in  our  own 
nature.  Can  His  authority  as  a  moral  ruler  act  upon 
a  stone  or  a  beast  ?  The  right  and  wrong  is  not  in  the 
faculties  to  be  regulated  by  God's  law  of  duty,  but  in 
the  use  we  make  of  them.  In  the  power  to  see,  hear, 
smell,  taste,  or  feel,  what  evil  is  there,  till  we  have 
used  it  for  an  evil  purpose  ?  Or  what  evil  is  there  in 
the  love  of  food,  light,  sound,  odours,  or  agreeable 
sensations,  till  we  have  in  some  way  indulged  them  at 
the  expense  of  conscience  or  of  the  divine  law  ?  Where 
is  the  evil  of  loving  wife,  children,  houses,  lands,  money, 
merchandise,  bank-stock,  or  any  other  good,  so  long  as 
it  is  subordinated  to  God  and  the  best  interests  of  man- 
kind? The  crime  is  not  in  the  sense,  affection,  or 
impulse,  but  in  exercising  it  criminally,  or  out  of  due 
proportion  to  otli^r  nflVctions  or  claims  upon  us.  I  am 


How  Heaven  is  Lost.  137 

now  speaking  of  the  faculties  in  an  uncorrupted  state, 
and  not  as  vitiated  by  inherited  or  habitual  sins.  Every 
one  will  see  the  difference  between  sin  as  a  judicial 
con-up ti  on  of  nature,  and  sin  as  a  first  act ;  nor  did 
this  difference  escape  the  ¥ notice  of  an  apostle,  as  we 
see  from  his  comparison  between  those  who  had  and 
those  who  had  not  sinned  after  the  similitude  of  Adam's 
transgression.1 

How  could  a  nature  with  so  many  specific  impulses 
work  out  its  destiny  without  temptation  ?  No  matter  how 
innocent,  it  could  make  no  difference,  till  by  exercise  and 
habit  it  had  attained  to  the  strength  and  consistency  of 
holiness.  Innocence  does  not  repress  the  onward  ten- 
dency of  an  impulse,  when  it  has  reached  its  proper 
limits,  as  a  fly  falls  with  singed  wings  when  he  touches 
the  flame.  No,  it  may  be  more  active  than  ever  as  it 
approaches  the  boundaries  of  wrong,  which  God  seems 
to  have  had  in  view  when  He  prohibited  not  only  the 
eating,  but  also  the  '  touching,'  2  to  suggest  that  we 
should  stop  short  of  the  boundaries  of  wrong,  and  thus 
let  our  moderation  be  known.3  To  dally  with  tempta- 
tion is  the  next  step  to  committing  sin.  Here,  on  the 
extreme  boundaries  of  right,  comes  the  temptation  to 
take  one  step  more  into  wrong.  With  no  evil,  and  no 
extraneous  malign  influence  in  the  universe,  a  being 
with  the  nature  of  man  could  not  act  without  occa- 
sional inward  conflicts  in  checking  specific  desires ;  nor 
could  his  innocence  become  virtue  and  holiness  with- 
out such  conflicts.  Victories  are  not  to  be  won  with- 
out battles,  nor  praiseworthiness  without  a  resolute 
resistance  to  becoming  blameworthy.  The  very  laws  of 
moral  development  involve  temptation,  so  far  as  we 
know  the  history  of  God's  universe.  This  is  as  much 

1  Rom.  v.  14.  2  Gen.  iii.  3.  3  Phil.  iv.  5. 


138  Seed-  Truths. 

a  fact  as  a  theory.  How  was  it  with  Adam  ?  how  with 
Christ  ?  how  with  those  who  have  come  out  of  gretit 
tribulation,  and  washed  their  robes  and  made  them 
white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb  ?  That  those  who 
overcome  will  wear  crowns  and  palms  of  victory,  as 
denoting  exemption  from  further  conflict,  rather  con- 
firms than  unsettles  the  principle  of  temptation  as  the 
law  of  moral  and  spiritual  progress,  at  least  in  that  part 
of  God's  moral  government  which  is  subjected  to  our 
inspection.1 

We  look  into  the  Bible,  and  what  do  we  find  ?  Was 
it  not  an  impulse  right  in  itself  that  betrayed  the  man 
after  God's  own  heart  into  sin  ?  God  Himself  con- 
cedes the  right  of  David's  desires ;  and  enumerating 
how  much  He  had  done  for  him,  He  adds,  '  If  that 
had  been  too  little,  I  would  moreover  have  given  unto 
thee  such  and  such  things.'  That  is,  all  his  desires 
had  their  limits,  within  which  gratification  was  lawful. 
So  Moses,  in  his  highest  state  of  spiritual  power,  be- 
came provoked  at  the  people's  obstinacy,  or  into  undue 
consciousness  of  what  he  could  and  must  do  to  con- 
found the  '  rebels ;'  and  these  specific  impulses  be- 
trayed him  into  sin,  and  closed  against  him  the  promised 
land.  Self-reliance  and  panic  urged  Peter  forward  into 
a  very  wicked  act,  though  the  core  of  his  piety  remained 
intact  and  unchanged.2  In  each  of  these  cases  the 
specific  impulse  came  in  an  exalted  state  of  spiritual 
power  and  faith,  laying  '  the  foundation  for  repent- 
ance from  dead  works,'  but  not  ending  in  permanent 
apostasy.8 

Moses'  account  of  the  first  sin  is  more  to  our  pur- 

1  Rev.  vii.  9,  14. 

•  2  Sam.  xii.  8  ;  Num.  xx.  10-12  ;  Mark  xiv.  66-72. 

1  Heb.  Vi.  1. 


How  Heaven  is  Lost.  139 

pose,  because  it  shows  the  working  of  specific  impulses 
in  producing  temptation  to  those  .who  were  in  a  state 
of  perfect  innocence.  '  And  when  the  woman  saw  that 
the  tree  was  good  for  food,  and  that  it  was  pleasant  to 
the  eyes,  and  a  tree  to  be  desired  to  make  one  wise, 
she  took  of  the  fruit  thereof,  and  did  eat,  and  gave  also 
unto  her  husband  with  her,  and  he  did  eat.'  Prior  to 
this  she  had  listened  doubtingly  to  the  serpent's  denial 
of  God's  authority  as  to  the  effect  of  eating  the  fruit  of 
that  tree.1  We  have  here  five  specific  impulses  in  the 
tempted  to  create  an  internal  struggle,  of  which  the 
serpent  took  advantage ;  to  wit,  doubt,  appetite,  taste, 
the  desire  of  knowledge,  and  ambition.  It  was  to 
develope  these  inward  powers  of  man,  or  his  faithful- 
ness in  subordinating  them  to  the  God-ruling  in  his 
soul,  that  this  prohibition  of  one  of  the  trees  of  the 
garden  was  no  doubt  given.  His  internal  faculties 
imposed  a  duty  and  a  law  of  duty  ;  and  the  prohi- 
bition was  a  test  of  his  obedience.  The  act  of  eating 
or  not  eating  of  that  particular  tree  was  of  little  con- 
sequence, except  as  a  test  of  his  obedience  to  the  higher 
truths  and  laws  of  his  being. 

The  first  element  in  the  temptation  was  doult — in 
itself  a  right  exercise  when  rightly  directed.  All  ad- 
vance in  knowledge  and  virtue  begins  with  a  doubt  as 
to  whether  there  is  not  something  better  for  us  than 
we  have  yet  attained  to.  Doubt  is  the  parent  of  in- 
vestigation and  of  growing  knowledge.  It  is  holding 
the  mind  in  an  attitude  of  waiting  for  more  evidence 
before  coming  to  a  decision.  But  where  the  question 
of  maintaining  our  moral  purity  becomes  a  matter  of 
doubt,  it  is  a  first  step  to  sin.  Such  it  proved  to  Eve. 
She  listened  hesitatingly  to  the  serpent's  charge  of  false- 

1  Gen.  iii.  4-6. 


1 40  Seed-  Truths. 

hood  upon  God,  saying,  '  Ye  shall  not  surely  die ;  for 
God  doth  know,  that  in  the  day  ye  eat  thereof  then 
your  eyes  shall  be  opened,  and  ye  shall  become  as  gods, 
knowing  good  and  evil.'  Herein  her  defection  began, 
in  giving  a  wrong  direction  to  an  innocent  and  im- 
portant impulse. 

Appetite  for  the  fruit  was  a  subsidiary  impulse,  to 
increase  the  doubt  whether  it  was  not  best  on  the 
whole  to  eat  of  it.  This,  too,  is  not  only  innocent,  but 
necessary ;  for  how  can  we  live  without  eating  ?  It 
was  not  appetite  that  constituted  the  wrong,  but  only 
exercising  it  towards  a  forbidden  indulgence.  '  When 
the  woman  saw  that  the  tree  was  good  for  food/  and 
dwelt  upon  the  idea,  then  '  the  lust  was  conceived 
which  bringeth  forth  sin/  She  thought  with  herself, 
no  doubt,  Why  should  so  innocent  a  gratification  be 
denied  ?  It  is  unworthy  of  God.  The  serpent  must  be 
right.'  Thus  doubt  and  appetite  mutually  strengthened 
each  other. 

Taste,  or  the  love  of  the  beautiful,  added  its  current 
to  the  evil  impulse.  The  fruit  was  '  pleasant  to  the 
eyes.'  There  is  certainly  no  wrong  in  being  delighted 
with  what  is  beautiful.  Beauty  is  akin  to  holiness.1 
But  when  used  as  an  impulse  to  things  wrong  in 
themselves,  or  which  God  has  forbidden,  it  becomes  a 
sublimated  licentiousness  ;  and  the  more  we  feel  it, 
the  greater  our  danger.  All  the  most  voluptuous  and 
damning  pleasures  are  embellished  with  every  charm 
to  the  eye,  to  increase  their  attractiveness  and  multiply 
their  victims.  Thus  one  of  the  noblest  impulses  of 
our  nature  may  be  easily  converted  into  our  strongest 
temptation,  to  demand  a  vigorous  resistance  on  the  part 
of  a  virtuous  mind. 

1  Ps.  xc.  17,  ex.  8. 


How  Heaven  is  Lost.  141 

The  desire  of  knowledge,  one  of  the  noblest  passions, 
also  lends  its  attractions  to  that  which  is  evil,  when  it 
contravenes  truth  and  right.  But  when  conjoined  with 
love  and  goodness,  it  acquires  a  new  and  higher  cha- 
racter ;  it  becomes  wisdom.  '  The  wise  shall  inherit 
glory.' *  It  is  only  when  knowledge  puffeth  up,  when 
it  robs  us  of  our  simplicity,  and  renders  us  crafty, 
cunning,  and. impertinent  in  our  investigations  and  our 
character,  that  it  is  an  offence  to  God,  and  a  curse.  The 
worst  heresies  of  the  world  began  with  men  gifted  in 
everything  but  'truth,  holiness,  and  the  love  of  God. 
'  The  world  by  wisdom  knew  not  God/  for  the  good 
reason,  that  another  element  than  simple  knowing,  that 
of  faith,  is  necessary  to  apprehend  God.2  An  eager 
curiosity  concurred  with  other  innocent  impulses  to 
create  the  first  temptation.  '  A  tree  to  be  desired 
to  make  one  wise,'  came  to  Eve's  mind  in  a  way  to 
corrupt  the  simplicity  of  her  trust  in  all  that  God 
required. 

The  ambition  to  be  '  as  gods,  knowing  good  and  evil,' 
had  also  its  charm  to  Eve.  Who  can  set  limits  to  the 
aspiring  of  the  human  soul  ?  And  is  it  not  quite  right 
when  it  seeks  perfection  in  goodness,  and  in  the  power 
of  good  to  others  ?  Did  not  our  Lord  mount  the  cross 
to  reach  the  throne  of  the  universe  ?3  Ambition  thus 
directed  is  godlike.  But  when  it  is  a  selfish  desire 
of  pre-eminence,  that  seeks  its  gratification  by  over- 
riding millions,  or  in  claiming  infallibility  for  fallible 
men,  and  the  viceroyalty  of  God  on  earth,  what  can 
be  conceived  of  more  absurd  or  blasphemous  ? 

'  If,  aspiring  to  be  gods,  angels  fell, 
Aspiring  to  be  angels,  men  rebel.' 

Such  are  the  specific  impulses  which  Moses  repre- 

1  Prov.  iii.  35.          8  1  Cor.  i.  21  ;  Isa.  xxix.  14.         3  Heb.  ii.  9. 


142  Seed-  Tru  ths. 

sents  as  working  in  an  innocent  being  to  produce 
temptation  and  a  fall.  They  would  have  operated  in 
man  without  an  outward  tempter,  as  they  seem  to 
have  operated  in  the  race  to  which  that  old  serpent 
the  Devil  and  Satan  belonged,  to  produce  its  relapse 
into  eviL  The  laws  of  moral  action,  as  consisting  in 
specific  desires  to  be  regulated  and  controlled  out  of  a 
regard  to  our  duty  to  God,  are  no  doubt  the  same  in 
all  the  intelligent  and  responsible  races  ;  as  it  is  found 
by  the  spectroscope  that  matter  has  the  same  elements 
in  the  sun  and  stars  as  in  our  earth.  Beings  may  be 
created  innocent ;  but  to  acquire  virtue  and  holiness, 
they  must  exercise  their  moral  faculties  under  tempta- 
tion in  a  way  to  ensure  praiseworthiness.  But  for 
this  elementary  condition  of  man  himself,  the  lies  and 
seductions  of  the  serpent  would  have  fallen  upon  him 
as  persuasion  upon  a  stone,  or  arguments  upon  a  shrub. 
Moses'  record  of  the  fall  of  man  is  a  perfect  pro- 
logue to  history,  bringing  to  light  and  anticipating  the 
great  forces  which  have  from  first  to  last  been  most 
active  in  shaping  events.  What  has  done  more  than 
scepticism,  or  the  extinction  of  faith  in  God  and  the 
spiritual  world,  to  produce  this  universal  earthliness 
and  impiety  for  which  the  race  has  been  distinguished  ? 
What  has  proved  a  greater  power  in  history  than  the 
fleshly  appetites  ?  Beauty,  natural  and  artistic,  how 
has  it  in  all  ages  ministered  to  voluptuousness  !  Art, 
architecture,  priestly  robes,  gorgeous  processions,  and 
various  a-stlietical  contrivances,  hold  millions  in  error 
and  wrong,  as  the  serpent's  eye  the  charmed  bird  ;  and 
all  argument  and  persuasion  fail  of  bringing  them  to 
the  knowledge  of  the  truth.  Science  falsely  so  called, 
as  well  as  the  abuse  of  much  that  is  true,  is  it  not 
now,  as  it  always  has  been,  a  great  antagonist  of  faith, 


How  Heaven  is  Lost.  143 

and  the  source  of  fatal  and  damning  errors  ?  How 
extensive  the  materialistic  tendency  of  denying  all 
truth,  except  what  may  be  formulated  to  the  reason, 
or  reduced  to  the  conditions  of  a  defined  conception 
or  axiom ! — whereas  nothing  within  the  range  of  our 
knowledge  can  be  so  defined,  the  simplest  forms  of 
matter  always  including  things  which  our  reason  cannot 
embrace  in  its  idea  of  them.  And  yet,  because  spiritual 
truths  are  addressed  to  our  faith  rather  than  to  our 
reason,  therefore  in  the  pride  of  our  knowledge  we  deny 
them  altogether,  and  come  to  the  monstrous  conclusion 
that  mind  is  merely  a  secretion  of  matter  !  And  ambi- 
tion inflating  us  to  the  state  of  divinity,  and  arrogating 
honour  due  only  to  God,  has  created  nine-tenths  of  the 
gods  which  still  claim  the  homage  of  mankind.  Who 
can  imagine  a  greater  power  in  history  than  ambition  ? 
ISfor  has  demon  influence  been  less  active  in  human 
history  than  it  was  in  the  first  sin.  How  potent  was 
it  in  the  time  of  our  Lord  !  How  has  it  associated 
itself  in  the  form  of  witchcraft,  necromancy,  magic, 
and  astrology,  with  nearly  all  the  false  religions  of  the 
world  !  Corrupt  spiritualism  is  even  more  prevalent 
than  the  true,  and  thousands  believe  in  it  who  have  no 
faith  in  Qod  or  His  word.  Thus  the  events  of  Eden 
are  singularly  adjusted  to  human  nature,  as  it  has 
proved  itself  to  be  in  its  career  of  nearly  six  thousand 
years.  "Why  then  speculate  about  the  fall  of  man  as 
a  distant  and  doubtful  event,  when  the  same  elements 
are  active  in  us  all,  and  the  same  event  is  transpiring 
in  all  our  experiences  ?  The  causes  which  lost  heaven 
to  Adam  may  lose  it  to  us. 


CHAPTEK  XIV. 

THE  SPIRITS  IN  PRISON. 

TO  profit  by  the  Bible,  we  must  read  it  as  applying 
to  our  present  experience,  and  not  merely  to 
that  of  the  dead  generations.  The  search  for  a  cure  of 
our  actual  diseases  is  very  different  from  that  of  an 
amateur  student  or  of  a  professional  man.  It  is  as  a 
record  of  man's  unchanging  characteristics,  imposing 
the  same  duties  and  laws  of  duty,  the  same  rewards 
and  penalties,  and  the  same  hopes  and  fears,  that  it 
becomes  a  book  alike  for  all  ages.  The  seed-truths 
of  man,  like  the  acorns  of  the  first  and  last  genera- 
tion of  oaks,  have  an  undying  life.  What  God  enacted 
for  Adam  and  all  previous  individuals  and  nations,  has 
the  same  significance  for  us  as  for  them.  Those  who 
receive  the  gospel  in  power  as  well  as  in  word,  and 
those  who  preach  it  with  a  personal  application,  are 
those  who  get  from  it  the  greatest  good  to  themselves, 
and  do  with  it  the  greatest  good  to  others.  And  our 
object  in  these  pages  is  to  set  forth  a  few  of  the  under- 
lying truths,  which,  from  being  universal  to  our  race, 
are  as  useful  and  as  essential  to  us  as  to  any  going 
before. 

We  have  seen  what  it  is  to  have  heaven  in  our 
souls,  and  what  it  is  to  lose  it ;  and  we  come  now  to 
consider  what  follows  from  so  great  a  loss. 

There  are  few  subjects  on  which  we  deceive  our- 

144 


The  Spirits  in  Prison.  145 

selves  more  than  upon  this.  We  think  of  the  death 
penalty  inflicted  upon  Adam  as  bodily  dissolution,  or 
as  a  great  physical  fact  like  a  public  execution,  in 
which  not  only  man,  but  the  beasts  and  the  elements 
of  nature,  alike  participated.  We  suppose  that  death, 
as  an  extinction  of  organic  life,  then  began  its  reign 
over  everything  that  hath  breath ;  that  brutes  had 
else  been  immortal ;  and,  if  brutes,  why  not  trees, 
foliage,  fruit,  and  every  product  of  the  soil  ?  Why 
not  ascribe  to  sin  vegetable  as  well  as  animal  death  ? 
Milton  represents  the  animals  as  then  changing  their 
nature,  the  hitherto  docile  lion  now  beginning  to  growl, 
and  the  placid  skies  to  be  overcast  and  weeping  sad 
drops  upon  the  face  of  the  earth, — a  sort  of  weeping,  by 
the  way,  that  no  form  of  life  can  well  dispense  with. 
But  we  fail  to  find  in  the  prologue  of  Moses  anything 
of  all  this.  The  day  succeeding  man's  sin  opened 
with  just  as  sweet  a  dawn  ;  the  teeming  earth  exhaled 
as  delightful  a  fragrance,  and  has  to  this  day  scenes 
that  might  be  copied  for  a  picture  of  Eden ;  the  land- 
scape was  sown  with  pearls  and  gold ;  and  Eve  was 
no  doubt  outwardly  as  beautiful,  and  Adam  as  majestic 
in  form  and  stature,  as  before  the  fatal  deed  was  done. 
The  birds  warbled  melodious  notes  from  overhanging 
branches  ;  the  lambs  disported  themselves  in  luxuriant 
pastures  ;  and  the  heavenly  bodies  poured  radiant  light 
upon  the  joyous  scene.  These  blessings  have  been 
attendant  upon  the  human  race  in  its  subsequent 
career,  and  how  should  they  have  been  suspended  on 
the  occasion  of  the  first  sin  ?  The  avenging  angel  did 
not  strike  down  the  guilty  pair,  nor  inflict  upon  nature 
any  sudden  convulsion.  The  bowers  of  Eden  were 
still  their  hiding-place. 

To  get  round  these  facts,  and  still  preserve  the  idea 

K 


146  Seed-  Tru  ths. 

of  bodily  death  as  the  threatened  penalty,  various 
schemes  have  been  devised,  such  as  a  reprieve  of 
threescore  years  and  ten,  or  death  in  posse  if  not  in 
esse,  or  assured  if  not  at  once  inflicted ;  and  thus  much 
special  pleading  has  been  resorted  to  in  accounting  for 
the  fact  that  the  penalty  threatened  was  not  inflicted 
on  the  day  of  the  sin.  But,  after  all,  was  it  not  in- 
flicted in  manner  and  form  as  intended  in  the  threaten- 
ing ?  Was  not  the  changed  state  of  man's  soul,  from 
the  moment  he  came  voluntarily  under  the  ruling  of 
his  fleshly  nature,  an  infinitely  greater  death  penalty 
than  a  thousand  bodily  dissolutions,  or  any  imaginable 
amount  of  physical  disaster  ?  When  shall  we  learn 
that  God's  revelation  is  a  thing  of  mind,  and  not  of 
matter  ?  Its  rewards  and  punishments  infinitely  ex- 
ceed all  our  ideas  of  a  paradisiacal  millennium  amid  the 
groves  and  material  delights  of  a  restored  world,  or  of 
a  lake  of  literal  fire  and  brimstone.  No  outward  scene 
of  horror  can  compare  with  the  loss  of  God's  sensible 
favour,  happy  communion  with  heavenly  beings,  or 
the  inward  peace  and  joy  of  a  rightly  regulated  soul. 
These  made  Eden ;  and  the  loss  of  them  was  succeeded 
by  a  hell  whose  anguish  no  outward  alleviations  could 
effectually  mitigate.  Who  can  estimate  the  amount  of 
woe  of  which  the  soul  of  man  has  been  the  seat  ?  It 
is  a  boundless,  bottomless  sea  of  agony. 

The  divine  word  contemplates  our  state  under  a 
variety  of  figures, — imprisonment,  bondage,  servitude, 
impotence,  death.  Deliverance  from  it  is  'liberty  to 
captives,  the  opening  of  the  prison  to  them  that  are 
bound,  proclaiming  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord '  as 
a  year  of  release  from  debt  and  enslavement.1  '  Who- 
soever committeth  sin  is  the  servant  of  sin ;  and  the 

1  Luke  iv.  18,  19 ;  Isa.  xlii.  7,  xxxv.  5,  xlix.  8,  9  ;  /« .  h.  :.\.  11,  12. 


The  Spirits  in  Prison.  147 

servant  abideth  not  in  the  house  for  ever/  but  is  cast 
out  of  the  family  as  no  part  of  it ;  while  '  the  Son 
abideth  ever,'  as  homogeneous  with  its  members,  and 
an  inheritor  of  their  privileges.1  Such  is  our  Lord's 
interpretation  of  this  bondage.  It  is  the  extinction 
from  the  soul  of  that  which  constitutes  its  free  life  in 
God.  But  He  adds :  '  If  ye  continue  in  my  words,  then 
are  ye  my  disciples  indeed ;  and  ye  shall  know  the 
truth,  and  the  truth  shall  make  you  free/  'If  the 
Son  therefore  shall  make  you  free,  ye  shall  be  free 
indeed.'2  What  can  be  intended  by  these  words,  but 
the  freedom  of  a  soul  under  God's  ruling,  or  guided  in 
all  things  by  the  true  and  the  right ;  and  the  enslave- 
ment of  one  in  whom  lust,  and  appetite,  and  ambition, 
and  malignity,  and  every  dark  passion,  reign  unchecked 
and  uncontrolled  ?  '  The  liberty  wherewith  Christ 
maketh  us  free '  is  deliverance  from  this  hell  within.3 

The  impotence  and  death  of  this  state  are  set  forth 
in  terms  equally  graphic :  '  The  heart  of  this  people 
is  waxed  gross,'  or  fleshly  and  brutal,  'and  their  ears 
are  dull  of  hearing,  and  their  eyes  have  they  closed ; 
lest  they  should  see  with  their  eyes,  and  hear  with 
their  ears,  and  understand  with  their  hearts,  and  be 
converted,  and  I  should  heal  them.'  '  God  has  given 
them  the  eyes  of  slumber ; '  or  torpidity  and  insensibi- 
lity to  spiritual  things  have  ensued  from  giving  them- 
selves up  to  the  flesh  and  the  world,  and  they  are  as 
impotent  as  if  born  without  eyes.  And  to  complete 
the  dark  picture,  they  are  represented  as  '  dead  in  tres- 
passes and  sins/ — a  deadness  that  consists  in  '  walking 
according  to  the  course  of  this  world,  according  to  the 
prince  of  the  power  of  the  air,  the  spirit  that  worketh 
in  the  children  of  disobedience/  and  therefore  purely 

1  John  viii.  34,  35.  2  John  iii.  31,  32,  36.  3  Gal.  v.  1. 


1 48  Seed-  Truths. 

the  result  of  coming  under  a  fleshly  dominion.  No 
power  but  that  which  raised  Christ  from  the  dead  can 
recover  them  from  this  state.1 

Peter  took  a  like  comprehensive  view  of  the  con- 
dition into  which  the  race  relapsed  at  the  fall :  '  For 
Christ  also  hath  suffered  for  us  in  the  flesh,  the  just 
for  the  unjust,  being  put  t&  death  in  the  flesh,  but 
quickened  by  the  Spirit ;  by  which  He  went  also  and 
preached  to  the  spirits  in  prison;  which  sometime 
were  disobedient,  when  once  the  long-suffering  of  God 
waited  in  the  days  of  Noah,  while  the  ark  was  a  pre- 
paring, wherein  few,  that  is,  eight  souls,  were  saved  by 
water.  The  like  figure  whereunto,  baptism,  doth  also 
now  save  us  (not  the  putting  away  of  the  filth  of  the 
flesh,  but  the  answer  of  a  good  conscience  toward  God), 
by  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ,  who  is  gone  into 
heaven,  and  is  on  the  right  hand  of  God ;  angels,  and 
authorities,  and  powers  being  made  subject  unto  Him/2 
We  quote  this  passage,  not  for  critical  disquisition,  nor 
to  attempt  the  settlement  of  its  disputed  points,  but  to 
call  attention  to  a  few  points  which  bear  directly  upon 
our  subject.  First,  that  the  antediluvians  were  spirits 
in  prison,  not  in  the  sense  of  being  outwardly  locked 
up  either  in  a  future  hell,  in  the  heart  of  the  earth,  in 
Hades,  or  in  any  such  confinement ;  for  there  is  a  total 
lack  of  evidence  that  Christ  ever  preached  in  any  such 
prison.  Second,  that  still  it  is  Christ's  mission  to 
preach  to  the  imprisoned  spirits  spoken  of.  Third, 
their  imprisonment  is  in  some  way  connected  with  the 
ill tli  of  the  flesh,  from  which  they  are  relieved  by 
st's  resurrection  power  as  represented  in  a  baptism 
which  denotes  a  conscience  or  spiritual  purification. 
Fourth,  that  in  heaven,  as  head  of  those  thus  raised  up 
L  17-21,  ii.  1 ;  Ruin,  vi  4-11.  *  1  Pet.  iii.  18-22. 


The  Spirits  in  Prison.  149 

with  Him,  He  will  have  the  supremacy  of  angels, 
authorities,  and  powers.  Here  we  have  a  comprehen- 
sive view  of  the  state  into  which  the  human  family 
relapsed,  as  an  imprisonment  in  the  flesh  and  the 
world,  so  dominating  them  as  to  deprive  them  of  their 
free  life  in  God, — a  freedom  never  more  to  be  enjoyed 
till  the  Son  makes  them  free,  and  they  become  spiritual 
men. 

The  apostle  here  writes  of  sin  as  a  physician  of  a 
disease  which  is  alike  in  all  ages,  taking  his  example 
of  it  from  aggravated  cases  thousands  of  years  ago,  to 
show  its  symptoms  and  its  malignity.  In  the  next 
chapter  he  changes  the  figure  from  preaching  to  spirits 
in  prison  to  'preaching  to  them  that  are  dead,  that 
they  might  be  judged  according  to  men  in  the  flesh, 
but  live  according  to  God  in  the  spirit/1  Their  fleshly 
state  is  arraigned,  condemned,  and  executed,  as  it  were, 
by  gospel  truth  brought  home  to  the  conscience ;  but 
out  of  their  death  comes  forth  the  new  man  in  Christ, 
whose  life  is  'according  to  God  in  the  spirit.'2  A  like 
comprehensive  view  of  the  remedy  preached  as  the 
same  in  all  ages,  is  presented  in  the  first  chapter  of 
this  epistle :  '  Eedeemed  by  the  precious  blood  of 
Christ,  as  of  a  lamb  without  blemish  and  without  spot ; 
who  verily  was  fore-ordained  before  the  foundation  of 
the  world,  but  was  manifested  in  these  last  times  for 
you,  who  by  Him  do  believe  in  God,  that  raised  Him 
from  the  dead,  and  gave  Him  glory;  that  your  faith 
and  hope  might  be  in  God.'3  The  blood  of  Christ 
here  represents  a  spiritual  power  working  in  all  the 

1 1  Pet.  iv.  6. 

2  1  Pet.  iv.  6,  with  which  compare  Gal.  ii.  19,  20,  Rom.  vi  11, 
2  Cor.  v.  15,  etc. 

3  1  Pet.  i  19-21. 


150  Seed-  Truths. 

ages,  to  relieve  the  imprisoned,  and  the  dead  in  fleshli- 
ness  and  worldliness,  and  to  raise  them  up  to  '  laith 
and  hope  in  God,'  or  to  a  spiritual  and  heavenly  life. 

What  was  this  imprisonment  of  the  antediluvians 
which  the  apostle  employs  to  represent  that  of  men  in 
all  ages  ?  It  was  fleshly  lust  intensified,  killing  out 
every  devout  and  noble  sentiment,  and  becoming  the 
worst  of  imprisonments  and  deaths.  'They  ate,  they 
drank,  they  married  and  were  given  in  marriage.'1 
The  sons  of  God  even  were  ensnared  by  the  voluptuous 
daughters  of  men,  repressing  and  extinguishing  their 
small  remains  of  spiritual  vitality,  and  rendering  it 
unavailing  to  their  children,  who  became  the  ncpliilim? 
giants,  '  strong  of  appetite,'3  only  the  more  skilful  in 
wickedness  for  what  few  religious  truths  they  inherited. 
Every  imagination  of  the  thoughts  of  their  heart  was 
evil  continually ;  all  flesh  was  corrupted  by  this  beastly 
life ;  violence  too,  as  usual,  went  hand  in  hand  with 
lust,  of  which  the  deluge  was  a  fitting  catastrophe.4 
The  ten  generations  preceding  the  flood,  having  few 
arts,  giving  limited  attention  to  government,  and  to  a 
great  extent  without  armies,  courts,  diplomacies,  organi- 
zations, or  other  means  of  diversified  interest,  such  as 
grew  up  among  the  descendants  of  Noah,  would  seem 
to  have  lived  merely  a  bestial  life,  with  a  few  rare  ex- 
ceptions. This  was  their  imprisonment.  After  the 
flood  it  was  otherwise,  and  men  became  warriors, 
hunters,  builders  of  cities  and  states;  thus  finding 
channels  for  their  teeming  activity,  which  rendered 
them  no  less  worldly,  no  less  dead  in  sin,  but  still  more 
conservative,  and  therefore  not  so  fitting  an  illustra- 

1  Matt.  xxiv.  37-30. 

*  Tin-  uonl  H-ji/iiliin  means  monstrous  births. 

» I«a.  IvL  11.  *  Ucn.  vi.  1-13. 


The  Spirits  in  Prison.  151 

tion  of  Peter's  idea  of  sin  as  a  state  of  imprisonment 
to  fleshly  lusts,  and  death  to  all  spiritual  and  holy 
affections. 

'  The  spirits  in  prison,'  like  men  in  whom  slavery 
has  extinguished  all  manly  aspirations,  had  lost  the 
idea  and  the  desire  of  spiritual  freedom.  Such  ideas 
and  desires  were  dead  in  them,  constituting  the  worst 
feature  of  their  imprisonment.  Children  stolen  by 
the  Indians  from  the  border  settlements  of  America, 
have  in  some  instances  lost  all  notions  of  civilised  life, 
and  become  savages  in  their  feelings,  predilections,  and 
habits,  to  the  extent  of  being  irreclaimable  by  their 
sorrowing  friends.  Attempts  to  change  their  nature 
after  finding  them,  by  introducing  them  to  the  customs 
and  usages  of  civilisation,  have  proved  a  failure,  and 
at  the  first  opportunity  they  would  escape  again  to  the 
freedom  of  their  wilderness  life.  In  such  cases,  some- 
thing more  than  a  knowledge  of  the  contrast  between 
savagery  and  civilisation  is  necessary  to  reclamation. 
They  must  in  some  way  be  brought  to  view  their  con- 
dition from  a  civilised  standpoint,  just  as,  in  the 
fabulous  doctrine  that  human  souls  transmigrate  into 
animals,  a  man  who  has  become  a  dog,  for  instance, 
must  be  made  to  feel  as  a  man  before  he  can  know 
the  degradation  of  a  dog's  life.  While  the  nature  of  a 
dog  is  still  in  him,  how  can  he  aspire  to  anything 
better  ?  So  men  must  have  a  changed  nature,  or  must 
in  some  way  be  made  to  conceive  the  degradation  and 
misery  of  being  carnal,  and  the  excellence  of  a  spiritual 
and  holy  life,  before  they  can  know  what  they  are, 
and  what  they  must  become  in  order  to  be  saved. 
This  is  the  great  point  to  be  gained  by  preaching  to 
the  spirits  in  prison,  and  to  men  that  are  dead,  that 
the  quickening  power  of  the  Spirit  attending  the  word 


152  Seed-  Truths. 

may  bring  them  to  a  sense  of  their  lost  estate,  and  of 
the  only  way  of  salvation. 

The  idea  of  the  prison,  of  the  death,  or  of  '  the  sin, 
the  most  mysterious  and  the  most  sorrowful  of  all 
ideas/  as  De  Quincey  says,  must  be  infused  into  a 
man's  soul,  before  the  work  of  reclaiming  him  to  holi- 
ness can  commence.  '  Sin  is  a  taint  in  the  individual, 
not  through  any  local  disease  of  its  own,  but  through 
a  scrofula  equally  diffused  through  the  infinite  family 
of  man/  Conviction  of  sin  is  not  merely  the  feeling 
of  specific  wrongs,  as  theft,  lying,  murder,  or  drunken- 
ness, under  the  remorse  of  which  men's  consciences 
sometimes  rankle,  —  though  this  may  be  included; 
but  beyond  all  this,  it  is  a  feeling  that  our  nature  is 
corrupt,  and  that  when  we  'would  do  good,  evil  is 
present  with  us/  'We  are  shapen  in  iniquity,  and 
conceived  in  sin/  are  'the  degenerated  plants  of  a 
strange  vine/  and  our  'whole  head  is  sick,  and  our 
whole  heart  faint/ 1  Our  nature  is  dominated  by  the 
flesh,  or  by  natural  ideas  and  interests ;  and  there  is 
no  redemption  for  us,  except  that  which  consists  in  re- 
establishing the  spiritual  ascendency  over  us  in  which 
the  race  was  originally  created.  Sin  is  a  constitution, 
a  body,  an  organism,  called  '  the  old  man/  c  the  natural 
man/  and  '  the  body  of  the  sins  of  the  flesh/  and  as 
such  is  propagated  from  father  to  son,  the  same  as 
any  other  quality  of  our  common  manhood.2  This  is 
as  much  a  physiological  fact  as  a  doctrine  of  divine 
revelation.  It  is  the  ascendency  of  the  outer  nature, 
causing  us  more  anxiety  as  to  what  we  shall  eat,  drink, 
wear,  how  we  shall  rise  to  wealth  and  power,  and 

1  Ps.  li.  6  ;  Jer.  ii.  21  ;  Isa.  i.  5. 

»  Rom.  vi.  6  ;  Eph.  iv.  22  ;  Col.  iii.  9  ;  1  Cor.  ii.  14, 15  ;  Col.  ii.  11 ; 
fioui.  v.  15-21. 


The  Spirits  in  Prison.  153 

transcend  others,  than  how  we  shall  lay  up  treasure 
in  heaven  or  be  rich  towards  God.1  Man,  as  made  to 
be  ruled  by  spirit,  could  not  become  wholly  earthly, 
without  entailing  a  nature  and  circumstances  upon  his 
posterity  to  make  them  so  too. 

The  account  given  by  Moses  of  the  manner  in 
which  man  glided  into  this  carnal  state  is  worthy  of 
particular  notice.  Though  all  at  once,  or  on  the  day 
of  the  sin,  according  to  the  threatening,  it  was  by 
successive  stages.  In  symbolizing  them  to  us,  acts  are 
ascribed  to  God  which  were  His  only  in  the  sense  of 
their  being  wrought  out  by  those  laws  which  He  had 
established  in  our  nature,  as  the  architect  whose  mind 
supplied  the  model  is  said  to  build  a  structure  on 
which  he  never  struck  a  hammer.  Thus  God  drove 
out  the  Canaanites,  and  He  drove  the  Jews  into  cap- 
tivity, when  the  first  was  effected  by  the  hard-fought 
battles  of  Israel,  and  the  other  by  the  Chaldee  in- 
vasion.2 So  the  sufferings  of  the  church  are  Christ's 
sufferings,  and  those  who  despise  His  servants  despise 
Him,  because  His  Spirit  is  in  them  as  the  moving 
power.3 

'God  walking  in  the  garden  in  the  wind  of  the 
day/  as  in  the  original,  or  when  the  evening  breeze 
had  tempered  the  heat,  denotes  the  subsidence  of  those 
passions  which  had  impelled  to  the  sin,  and  preparing 
the  sinner  to  hear  the  voice  of  God  as  formerly ;  but 
O  how  different  the  impression !  What  had  been  his 
heaven,  was  now  his  hell.  He  skulked ;  he  hid  him- 
self among  the  trees  of  the  garden;  he  resorted  to  a 

1  Matt.  vi.  19,  20  ;  Luke  xii.  21. 
8  Josh.  xiii.  14,  15  ;  Jer.  viii.  3. 
3  CoL  i.  24  ;  1  Thess.  iv.  8  ;  Luke  x.  16  ;  Acts  ix.  4,  'Why  per* 

secutest  tliou  me  ? ' 


154  Seed-  Truths. 

subterfuge  to  cover  his  naked  deformity ;  and  thus 
reflection  put  him  upon  an  escape  from  evils  which  he 
felt  to  be  impending. 

•Well,  I'll  hide  the  body  in  some  hole, 
Till  that  the  duke  gives  order  lor  his  burial : 
And  when  -I  have  my  meed,  /  will  away  ; 
For  this  will  out,  and  1  must  not  stay.' 

Did  this  murderer  wait  for  a  pursuing  executioner 
before  making  his  escape  ?  No,  there  is  a  law  through 
which  God  more  speedily  and  more  effectually  works 
out  His  ordeal  of  trial ;  and  that  took  effect  in  Adam 
the  moment  reflection  succeeded  to  the  vehemence  of 
passion,  and  he  sought  concealment.  Moses  and  Shake- 
speare agree  as  to  this  feature  of  human  nature. 

The  adjudication  equally  reflects  principles  common 
to  mankind.  It  began  with  Adam,  who  charged  the 
blame  on  Eve,  and  she  on  the  serpent,  who  accepted 
the  charge  in  silence.  The  hopeless  criminal,  instead 
of  casting  the  blame  on  others,  glories  in  it  as  all  his 
own,  and  relates  with  gusto  his  hardihood  and  bravery 
in  doing  the  deed.  He  asks  no  partner  to  share  his 
hellish  honors;  nor  did  Satan  on  this  memorable 
occasion.  In  the  judgment  the  order  is  reversed,  and 
the  demon  is  first  to  be  doomed  to  dust  as  his  home 
and  his  meat,  and  to  final  destruction  under  the  heel 
of  the  woman's  Seed ;  the  woman  is  next  given  over  to 
sorrow  and  subjection ;  while  the  man  is  last  assigned 
to  toil  and  sweat  in  extracting  bread  from  a  thorn  and 
thistle  infested  soil,  and  to  the  dust  from  which  he 
was  taken,  as  his  only  road  to  that  immortality  into 
which  his  nature  had  else  been  commuted  by  a  process 
as  happy  as  it  would  have  been  glorious.  Our  change 
from  mortal  to  immortal  is  now  painful,  and  we  arc  all 
oui-  lives  in  bondage  through  fear  of  death.  But  \viili  a 


The  Spirits  in  Prison.  155 

sinless  race,  it  would  no  doubt  have  been  anticipated 
as  the  nuptial  or  coronation  day  of  the  soul ;  and  it 
becomes  so  even  to  us  in  the  full  exercise  of  a  faith 
enabling  us  to  say,  '  0  death,  where  is  thy  sting  ?  0 
grave,  where  is  thy  victory  ? ' l 

The  expulsion  from  Eden  resulted  from  a  necessary- 
separation  of  spiritual  life  from  one  in  a  carnal  state.2 
Ko  power  could  perpetuate  such  a  life  as  that  of  Eden 
in  those  who  have  assumed  an  attitude  of  hostility  to 
God.  The  fall  of  man  is  not  an  abstraction,  but  a 
great  fact  of  history.  It  is  indeed  represented  to  us 
by  imagery  to  a  certain  extent  symbolical,  but  it  is 
none  the  less  a  matter  of  fact.  Even  this  imagery 
is  suited  to  the  idea  of  imprisoned  convicts,  or  to 
criminals  under  restraint.  What  is  uppermost  in  the 
minds  of  men  thus  situated  ?  Is  it  not  the  dread  of 
justice  and  of  the  executioner,  and  also  a  desire  to 
escape  ?  The  dread  of  justice  is  a  silent,  sullen  feeling, 
which  is  rarely  expressed,  as  to  acknowledge  a  fear  of 
justice  would  be  a  confession  of  guilt.  In  conversing 
with  criminals,  I  have  found  the  claim  of  innocence 
almost  universal ;  but  the  desire  of  escape  is  an  active 
loquacious  principle,  ready  for  any  subterfuge  to  elude 
justice.  Plea  of  innocence,  turning  State's  evidence, 
breaking  jail, — nothing  comes  amiss  on  which  hangs 
the  least  hope  of  deliverance.  These  two  ever-present 
forces  in  a  guilty  mind  are,  no  doubt,  brought  to  view 
by  the  symbols  of  the  cherubim  and  the  flaming 
sword  at  the  eastern  gate  of  Eden  to  guard  the  way  to 
the  tree  of  lives,  the  representative  of  spiritual  freedom 
and  life  in  God.  '  So  God  drove  out  the  man ;  and 
He  placed  at  the  east  of  Eden  cherubim,  and  a  flaming 
sword  which  turned  every  way,  to  keep  the  way  of  the 
1  1  Cor.  xv.  55.  *  Geii.  iii.  23  \  Rom.  vii.  14. 


156  Seed-Truths. 

tree  of  life.' l  To  Adam,  Eden  was  liberty ;  expulsion, 
slavery :  he  and  his  posterity  were  thenceforth  spirits 
in  prison. 

The  cherub,  the  symbol  of  a  retributive  Providence, 
denotes  power,  majesty,  and  avenging  justice.  Those 
at  the  gate  of  Eden  are  no  doubt  a  symbol  of  the 
forces  in  criminal  natures  which  indispose  them  to 
innocence,  and  which  therefore  render  it  impossible  for 
them  to  resume  their  free  life  in  God.  They  cannot, 
because  in  their  vitiated  state  they  will  not.  The 
idea  of  God  is  repulsive  to  them,  and  how  then  should 
they  be  attracted  towards  Him  ?  '  God  riding  upon  a 
cherub '  denotes  rapid  execution  in  His  works  of  power 
and  punishment2  Ezekiel's  vision  gives  a  graphic  idea 
of  the  various-  agencies  executing  God's  decrees.  The 
whirlwind,  the  flame  like  amber,  the  variously  formed 
living  creatures,  the  man,  the  lion,  the  ox,  the  eagle, 
with  wings  having  hands  under  them,  all  moving  with 
wheels  touching  the  earth,  or  connected  with  man's 
material  life,  and  impelled  by  one  mind, — these  are 
some  of  the  features  by  which  God's  infinitely  diversi- 
fied providence  over  a  guilty  and  imprisoned  race  are 
set  forth  in  prophetic  vision.8  The  great  power  in  this 
complicated  mechanism  was  the  unseen  but  living  soul, 
showing  that  in  nature  as  well  as  in  man  mind  is 
the  'supreme  force. 

The  cherubim,  as  God's  all -comprehending  provi- 
dence, are  a  terror  to  guilty  men.  They  are  never  re- 
presented as  speaking,  except  in  the  language  of  events. 
Those  of  the  Jewish  temple  were  gigantic  human  figures, 

»  Gen.  iii.  24. 

*  2  Sam.  xx ii.  11  ;  Ps,  xcix.  1. 

3  Kx.-k.  i.  ;  Fldi.  xi.  27.     [In  vinvnf  this  invisible  providence 

eiulimd.J 


The  Spirits  in  Prison.  157 

standing  in  the  darkness  of  the  holy  of  holies,  where 
God  had  His  throne  and  His  law,  unseen  to  mortal 
eyes,  continuing  from  age  to  age  as  conservators  of  the 
divine  government  against  the  iinpotent  opposition  of 
men  and  devils.  At  the  gate  of  Eden  they  sat,  too,  in 
solemn  silence,  as  time  notched  its  centuries.  No 
word  proceeds  from  their  lips  ;  no  emotion  agitates 
them  amid  the  wrecks  of  generations  or  of  empires 
passing  under  their  view;  no  vacillation  of  purpose 
disturbs  them  in  executing  the  eternal  decrees. 

It  is  a  fact  worthy  of  note,  that  the  winged  bulls 
exhumed  at  Nineveh  stood  to  the  living  generations 
who  chiselled  them  out  of  stone  as  guardians  of  their 
gateways  ;  that  the  Egyptian  and  Grecian  sphinxes, 
and,  I  believe,  the  Scandinavian  griffins,  and  also  the 
fabulous  animals  of  India,  performed  a  like  office. 
They  were  invested  with  attributes  of  terror  to  inter- 
lopers ;  and,  from  the  Grecian  story  of  (Edipus  and  the 
sphinx,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  they  were  among 
heathen  nations  a  type  of  man's  fears  in  the  hand  of 
an  inexorable  Providence.  (Edipus  as  the  murderer  of 
his  father,  the  husband  of  his  mother,  the  father  of  his 
brothers  and  sisters,  the  persecuted  of  his  sons,  and 
then  voluntarily  blinded  to  hide  from  him  these  evils, 
sets  forth  a  pagan's  idea  of  the  malignant  influences 
working  in  providence.  I  suppose  there  are  no  visible 
links  to  trace  this  idea  as  represented  by  these  fabu- 
lous animals  to  the  same  source  with  the  cherubim  of 
Moses ;  and  yet  one  cannot  but  feel,  from  the  use  made 
of  them  to  guard  gateways,  and  the  general  dread  with 
which  they  were  associated,  that  they  must  have  had 
the  same  origin.  The  feeling  of  not  being  right  with 
God  is  alike  prevalent  among  all  nations ;  and  can  we 
wonder  that  it  should  be  expressed  under  a  like  sym- 


158  Seed-  Truths. 

"holism?     Is  it   not  as  a  law-work  essential  in  re- 
demption ? 

The  sword  of  flame  appeals  to  the  universal  desire 
of  imprisoned  criminals  to  effect  their  escape.  It  sup- 
poses the  gateway  still  open,  but  guarded  by  the  che- 
rubim against  those  who  had  no  right  to  enter;  while 
the  sword  denotes  authority  and  illumination,  to  assist 
those  who  come  in  the  right  way.  They  were  to  '  keep ' 
the  way  of  the  tree  of  life,  not  to  close  it.  This  sword 
suspended  over  the  gateway,  and  '  constantly  turning 
itself,'  as  Gesenius  renders  the  passage,  '  reflects  light 
not  only  within  the  garden,  but  to  those  without  who 
would  enter.  It  is  a  light  to  assist  the  spirits  in  prison 
to  effect  their  escape,  and  to  return  and  eat  of  the  tree 
of  life,  and  live  for  ever.'  This  is  a  gospel  for  the 
imprisoned  and  the  dead — '  a  light  shining  in  a  dark 
place ' — the  voice  of  the  Son  of  God  calling  the  dead  to 
life,  arraigning  and  condemning  them,  as  'men  yet  in 
the  flesh,  that  they  may  live  according  to  God  in  the 
spirit ; '  and  thus  the  sword  of  flame  can  mean  nothing 
but  God's  truth  preached  '  in  demonstration  of  the  Spirit 
and  of  power '  to  men  in  their  fleshly  state,  to  restore 
them  to  a  heavenly  life.1  The  gospel  is  a  sword,  not 
only  as  spoken  with  authority,  and  unlike  the  scribes, 
but  as  being  an  executioner  to  kill  as  well  as  to  make 
alive,  to  '  crucify  the  flesh,  with  its  affections  and  lusts,' 
as  the  only  mode  of  a  sinner's  escape  from  impending 
wrath.  We  must  die  to  sin  before  we  can  live  unto 
God ;  we  must  leave  our  worldly  life  before  we  can 
enter  into  the  strait  and  narrow  gate,  and  thus  find  our 
way  back  to  '  the  tree  of  lives,'  and  eat,  and  live  for  ever.2 

1  2  Pet.  i.  19  ;  John  v.  25  ;  1  P«-t.  iv.  6  ;  1  Cor.  ii.  4. 
*  Mutt.  vii.  29  ;  Ual.  v.  24  ;  Hum.  vi.  6  ;  Mutt.  vii.  13,  14  ;  Luke 
xiiL  24, 


The  Spirits  in  Prison.  159 

This  idea  of  the  gospel  as  a  killing  power  as  well  as  a 
power  to  make  alive  is  too  obvious  a  feature  of  revealed 
religion  to  need  further  comment. 

The  word  of  God  is  often  represented  as  a  sword.1 
In  this  application  of  the  symbol  of  Moses,  therefore, 
we  are  not  fanciful,  but  are  fully  sustained  by  the 
interpretation  which  inspired  men  put  upon  their  own 
symbols.  It  is  a  two-edged  sword,  to  signify,  no 
doubt,  that  it  cuts  towards  the  interests  of  man  as 
a  citizen  of  this  world  and  of  heaven.  It  asserts 
our  duties  towards  men  and  towards  God,  and  cuts 
off  our  vices  as  well  as  our  impieties.  The  same  idea 
seems  to  be  included  in  the  '  tongues '  of  fire  being 
cloven  which  sat  upon  each  of  the  apostles  on  the  day 
of  Pentecost.  Each  tongue  darted  jets  of  flame  in 
opposite  directions,  to  indicate  not  only  a  power  to  pro- 
pagate truth,  but  truth  of  man  in  his  embodied  as  well 
as  disembodied  relations.  Though  some  critics  give  a 
different  interpretation,  this  to  the  writer  seems  more 
analogous  to  the  use  of  the  term  in  other  places,  as 
well  as  to  the  contents  of  the  divine  word  as  bearing 
upon  two  worlds.  The  sword  of  flame  turning  every 
way  opened  the  dispensation  of  symbol;  the  cloven 
tongues  of  flame,  the  dispensation  of  power.  The  one 
reflected  a  measure  of  light  upon  all  the  nations,  their 
pagan  ideas  variously  perverted  being  borrowed  from 
it ;  while  the  other  has  reflected  some  truth  over  the 
whole  area  of  human  civilisation.  '  That  was  the  true 
Light,  which  lighteth  every  man  that  cometh  into 
the  world.' 2  '  Its  turning  itself  continually '  is  like 
the  flame  of  a  lighthouse  shining  far  off  on  the 

1  Eph.  vi.  17  ;  Heb.  iv.  12  ;  Deut.  xxxiii.  29  ;  Rev.  i.  16,  ii.  12, 
xix.  15. 
*  JoLu  i.  9. 


1 60  Seed-  Truths. 

ocean  expanse,  to  guide  the  passing  marine    of  all 
nations. 

Among  the  thousand  religions  and  inventions  de- 
vised for  the  soul  imprisoned  in  fleshly  lusts  and 
worldly  ideas  to  effect  its  escape,  this  is  the  only  one 
that  accomplishes  the  object.  This  goes  direct  to  the 
root  of  the  evil  in  a  heart  alienated  from  God,  and 
teaches  us  that  we  must  be  born  again  in  order  to  enter 
the  kingdom  of  heaven.  Ceremonies,  priestly  absolu- 
tion, the  cattle  on  a  thousand  hills,  the  first-born  of  our 
flesh  for  the  sin  of  our  soul,  are  without  avail  here. 
As  our  bondage  is  enslavement  to  the  flesh,  our  freedom 
is  in  the  spirit  of  adoption,  crying,  Abba,  Father.1 
1  Joliii  iii.  4-7 ;  Fs.  1.  8-15  j  Hie.  vi.  7,  8 ;  Rom.  viii.  15, 


CHAPTER  XV. 

DOCTRINE  IN  HISTORY. 

THE  Old  Testament!  what  can  we  find  in  that 
suited  to  our  present  civilisation  ?  Who  can 
live  as  Abraham  did,  or  utilize  Moses'  obsolete  laws  ? 
Who  would  not  abhor  to  kill  off  a  whole  race,  as 
Samuel  the  Amalekites ;  or  to  hang  sons  for  the  sins  of 
their  father,  as  David  did  the  house  of  Saul  ?  Who 
dances  in  worship  except  fanatics,  or  observes  ox-killing 
ceremonials  except  at  a  political  barbecue  ?  Are  such 
stories  fit  to  read  to  our  families  or  congregations  ? 
Such  is  the  language  and  feeling  of  many,  and  we 
have  heard  like  feelings  expressed  even  by  Christians 
of  intelligence  and  piety.  The  Old  Testament  out  of 
date  since  the  New  came  into  vogue !  Indeed,  why 
then  did  the  Son  of  God  and  His  apostles  make  it  the 
text  of  so  many  sermons  and  epistles  ? 

The  error  of  this  reasoning  is  in  conceiving  that 
a  doctrine  could  exist  without  a  history,  or  in  failing 
to  consider  that  history,  in  working  its  way  into  doc- 
trine, necessarily  allies  itself  to  what  accords  to  the 
thought  and  usage  of  the  living  generations.  Thought 
in  a  child  is  evolved  from  sensations,  and  not  sensa- 
tions from  thoughts.  It  is  several  years  before  a 
thought  becomes  so  grooved  into  a  child's  mind  as  to 
be  a  memory  of  his  after  life.  Why  did  not  the  plough 
idea  start  up  into'  its  present  perfection  thousands  of 

L 


1 6  2  Seed-  Tru  ths. 

years  ago  ?  Why  this  long  history  of  clumsy  con- 
structions  of  that  useful  implement  running  through 
so  many  ages  \  Why  did  not  some  statesman  a  thou- 
sand years  ago  invent  the  British  Constitution,  and 
thus  prevent  the  wars  of  the  Eoses,  and  Henrys,  and 
Stuarts,  and  Georges,  and  Long  Parliament — this  infinite 
flow  of  human  blood  ?  Why  did  not  Pastor  Eobinson 
put  the  American  Constitution  into  the  hand  of  the 
Mayflower  Pilgrims,  to  be  worked  up  to  in  the  New 
World  ? 

The  truth  is,  a  doctrine  without  a  history  is  like  a 
constitution  without  national  development, — a  thing  to 
dream  over,  as  Plato  over  his  ideal  republic,  or  as  the 
French  savans  over  their  ne  plus  ultra  governments  in 
the  time  of  their  Eevolution ;  but  not  a  thing  to  walk 
on  all  fours  in  this  matter-of-fact  world.  Creeds,  like 
constitutions,  become  a  fixed  fact  only  as  they  are 
shaped  by  history.  The  Nicene  Creed  embodied  ages  of 
philosophical  discussion  ;  religious  controversy,  national 
war  and  diplomacy,  and  the  great  interests  of  Christen- 
dom, giving  it  birth,  and  form,  and  perpetuity.  The 
Westminster  Confession  was  backed  by  Presbyterian 
history;  and  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  by  an  English 
National  Church  which,  under  Eome,  had  had  a  thou- 
sand years'  growth  and  formation.  The  Methodist 
Book  of  Discipline  took  form  from  a  widespread  and 
powerful  religious  movement,  and  from  a  series  of 
antecedent  events  involving  the  action  of  thousands  of 
earnest  minds.  History,  and  usage,  and  the  Bible, 
answer  to  the  Baptists,  Quakers,  and  some  other  sects, 
all  the  purposes  of  denominational  cohesion  without  a 
general  creed,  showing  that  standards  of  faith  and 
practice  are  quite  as  dependent  upon  fact  as  upon 
doctrine.  What  would  Eume  be  without  her  history, 


Doctrine  in  History.  163 

her  material  forms,  or  her  vast  accumulations  in  money, 
cathedrals,  sacred  foundations,  and  priestly  orders,  vest- 
ments, and  prestige  ? 

So  of  revealed  religion  as  contained  in  Holy  Scrip- 
ture :  as  an  abstraction,  it  would  have  but  a  feeble  hold 
upon  us,  if  any  at  all ;  but  as  a  history  flowing  onward 
with  the  actual  current  of  human  events,  it  has  grown 
to  a  power  wide  as  the  world.  But  if  it  had  been 
given  to  man  in  scientific  definitions,  or  in  the  care- 
fully-worded articles  of  a  creed,  or  in  the  essay-style  of 
those  who  object  to  the  barbarous  record  of  the  Old 
Testament,  it  would  have  been  as  incomprehensible  and 
unavailing  as  Emerson's  lectures  to  a  congregation  of 
Digger  Indians.  The  Bible  as  it  is  shows  the  out- 
working of  the  real  forces  in  human  nature  from  the 
beginning  of  time,  together  with  God's  various  modes 
of  supernatural  illumination,  to  point  out  its  wander- 
ings and  direct  it  in  the  way  it  should  go.  The  causes 
producing  the  history  are  the  antecedent  forces  in  the 
case,  just  as  the  plough  idea  is  grounded  in  the  neces- 
sities of  agriculture,  constitutions  in  the  demand  for 
social  organization,  and  religion  in  a  spiritual  faculty, 
which,  however  repressed,  will  for  ever  assert  its  claims 
in  one  way  or  another.  And  as  the  history  follows  the 
causes  producing  it,  so  doctrine  comes  after  the  history, 
and  supposes  an  age  of  reflection  and  of  ripe  intellec- 
tual culture,  like  that  of  the  man  in  working  up  into 
poetry,  philosophy,  or  instruction,  the  feelings  and 
fancies  of  his  childhood. 

Thus  of  Christian  doctrine.  Up  to  the  time  of 
Moses  there  was  no  prescribed  creed  or  ritual.  Sacri- 
fices were  merely  free-will  offerings,  prompted  by  devout 
minds,  but  required  by  no  recorded  commandment. 
The  patriarch  who  had  special  tokens  of  God's  presence, 


1 64  Seed-Truths. 

or  an  abundant  harvest,  gave  expression  to  his  grateful 
or  glad  emotions  by  the  killing  of  animals,  or  the  offer- 
ing to  God  of  fruits  and  libations,  the  same  as  when 
he  was  made  happy  by  a  friend's  visits  or  benefactions. 
Thus  Cain  and  Abel,  on  some  such  special  occasion — 
the  one  from  a  receipt  of  worldly  good,  in  which  his 
heart  was  bound  up,  and  the  other  in  view  of  spiritual 
truths  opening  upon  him  with  unusual  clearness,  and 
kindling  his  devout  emotions — brought  each  his  free- 
will offering.  The  different  result  to  Cain  from  what 
it  was  to  Abel  arose,  I  think,  not  from  wliat  they 
sacrificed,  as  many  suppose, — for  the  offerings  which 
both  brought  were  alike  required  under  the  law  of 
Moses, — but  from  the  different  spirit  and  character  of 
the  two  men.  '  By  faith  Abel  offered  unto  God  a  more 
acceptable  sacrifice  than  Cain,' — faith  not  as  a  doctrine 
of  the  reason,  but  faith  as  the  power  for  a  spiritual 
and  heavenly  life.1  But  the  history  of  Cain  shows  him 
to  have  been  as  worldly  in  his  religion  as  in  his  malig- 
nity, and  that,  like  the  son  of  the  bond-woman,  he  was 
born  after  the  flesh,  and  not  by  promise.2  This  differ- 
ence of  character  made  the  history  of  the  two  men  so 
different,  their  offerings  being  alike  spontaneous,  but 
from  dissimilar  motives. 

That  sacrifice  arose  rather  from  God's  laws  working 
in  human  nature  than  from  specific  enactment,  would 
appear  from  other  remarkable  cases.  Thus  Abraham, 
at  his  tent-door  in  the  plains  of  Mamre,  hastened  to 
prepare  a  feast  for  the  three  heavenly  messengers  by 
whose  presence  he  was  made  happy.  The  '  calf,  tender 
and  good,'  the  hastily-baked  cakes  of  Sarah,  the  butter 
and  inilk,  the  water  of  purification,  those  usual  accom- 
paniments of  a  sacrifice,  were  soon  in  readiness,  and 
1  Heb.  3d.  4;  Gcu.  iv.  4-7.  •  Gal.  iv.  23. 


Doctrine  in  History.  165 

the  patriarch  stood  under  the  shade  of  his  oak  to  wait 
and  tend  while  the  meal  was  served  to  his  guests.1  All 
was  spontaneous,  gushing  up  from  a  fountain  of  spiritual 
delight  in  the  soul,  and  in  obedience  to  no  other  law. 
Such  was  Gideon's  sacrifice,  when -he  besought  his  celes- 
tial visitor  not  to  depart  till  he  came  bringing  a  present, 
and  set  it  before  him.  He,  too,  '  brought  unleavened 
cakes,  and  meat  in  a  basket,  and  broth  in  a  pot,'  which 
the  angel  dissolved  into  flame  by  fire  coming  out  of 
the  rock,  when  he  took  his  departure.2  And  Manoah, 
when  made  happy  by  the  promise  of  a  son,  '  took  a  kid, 
with  a  meat-offering,  and  offered  it  upon  a  rock  unto  the 
Lord ;  and  the  angel  did  wondrously ;  and  Manoah  and 
his  wife  looked  on,'  '  for  he  ascended  in  the  flame  of  the 
altar.'3  Though  there  be  no  divine  command  originating 
sacrifices,  with  so  many  like  examples  before  us,  how 
can  we  doubt  that  God  instituted  them  through  the  con- 
vivial principle  of  man's  nature,  called  into-  exercise  in 
celebrating  special  visitations  from  heaven  ? 

The  patriarchal  history  is  full  of  these  gracious 
visitations  from  God,  filling  devout  souls  with  ineffable 
delight :  they  gave  expression  to  their  feelings  in  the 
universal  language  of  such  occasions,  by  the  killing  of 
animals,  by  offerings  of  fruits  and  libations,  by  solemn 
assemblies,  sometimes  by  music  and  dancing,  much  the 
same  as  when  they  were  made  happy  by  the  visits  of 
their  earthly  friends.4  The  paschal  supper  and  the 
Jewish  feasts  were  provided  for  by  law,  not  as  origi- 
nating sacrifices,  but  as  reducing  to  form  and  doctrine 
the  results  of  a  spontaneous  impulse  which  had  wrought 
in  holy  men  from  the  beginning  of  time. 

1  Gen.  xviii.  1-8.          2  Judg.  vi.  11-21.          3  Judg.  xiii.  19,  20. 
*  Lev.  iv.  15  ;  Judg.  xxi.  21  ;  Deut.  xvi.  14-17  ;   Ex.  xv.  20,  21; 
2  Sam.  vi.  12-14. 


1 66  Seed-  Truths. 

The  corrupted  ritualism  of  heathen  nations  had 
doubtless  a  similar  origin,  being  either  derived  from 
the  early  patriarchs  or  from  their  own  imaginary  visits 
from  their  gods.  Agamemnon  feasted  his  heroes  in 
honour  of  the  gods  to  celebrate  his  victories.  The 
gods  of  Olympus  had  their  feasts,  when  they  were 
excited  to  laughter  by  limping  Vulcan  acting  as  cup- 
bearer, which  were  no  doubt  types  of  the  royal  cele- 
brations in  Homer's  time,  rather  than  of  anything 
occurring  among  the  celestials.  Heathen  offerings 
were  largesses  given  to  the  malignant  divinities,  such 
as  those  with  which  they  bought  the  favour  of  their 
tyrants,  and  sometimes  consisted  of  human  sacrifices.1 
They  hoped  thus  to  commute  with  Heaven  for  the 
punishment  of  their  crimes,  and  buy  the  privilege  of 
sinning,  like  the  Catholics,  in  paying  for  priestly  dis- 
pensations. These  tendencies  of  human  nature  are 
universal  ;  and  can  we  wonder  that  sacrifices  should 
have  arisen  without  an  express  command  ?  They 
have  a  history  in  the  workings  of  the  human  soul, 
just  as  every  thought  in  a  child's  mind  has  a  long 
series  of  antecedent  sensations,  sympathies,  and  en- 
deavours. 

Jesus  took  advantage  of  this  feature  of  human 
nature,  in  giving  us  His  last  supper  as  a  perpetual 
memorial  of  Himself.  As  in  the  old  dispensation 
redeeming  truths,  in  anticipation  of  their  fuller  revela- 
tion by  the  Messiah,  were  symbolized  by  sacrifices, 
feasts,  and  various  ceremonials,  so  we  celebrate  them 
as  accomplished  facts  which  we  would  ever  keep  in 
rnind.  Our  memorial  is  simple,  deriving  its  signifi- 
cance from  the  greatness  of  the  facts,  and  not  from  the 
imposing  character  of  the  ceremonial  The  whole 

1  2  Kin-s  iii.  27. 


Doctrine  in  History.  167 

ritual  worship  of  holy  men  from  Adam  to  Christ, 
however,  had  in  view  the  reality  of  redemption  as  a 
recovery  from  the  world,  the  flesh,  and  the  devil,  to 
walk  with  God  as  Enoch1  did.  They  had  the  truth 
as  an  experience  of  inward  power,  though  not  as  a 
symbolized  doctrine.  Abel,  Noah,  Abraham,  and 
others,  were  priests  of  the  Most  High  each  in  his 
day,  who  resorted  to  sacrifice  in  the  exercise  of  their 
function,  and  to  express  their  joyful  fellowship  with 
heavenly  beings.  '  God  had  respect  unto  them  ; '  the 
witness  of  it  they  had  in  their  inmost  being ;  it  was 
like  the  smiles  of  grace  still  felt  in  believing  souls, 
the  Lord  testifying  of  their  gifts ; 2  and  they  constitute 
an  order  of  events  which  are  the  most  potential  facts 
of  history.  They  are  God's  tokens,  not  by  creeds  and 
laws,  but  in  what  is  antecedent  to  both,  except  the 
creed  and  law  of  supreme  love  and  obedience  to  God. 
They  are  the  white  stone  with  a  new  name,  which  no 
man  knoweth,  saving  he  that  receiveth  it ;  a  token  of 
hospitality  which  gives  unfailing  access  to  the  hidden 
manna  that  really  comes  down  from  heaven.3  Abel's 
experience  was  that  of  Bunyan's  Pilgrim  at  a  view  of  the 
cross,  when  his  burden  left  him ;  it  was  the  same  with 
Jacob's  in  Luz,  and  of  Augustine  and  Edwards,  which 
have  before  been  noticed.  A  like  experience  in  the 
Mayflower  Pilgrims  took  them  to  New  England,  to 
realize  among  nature's  wilds  and  savage  men  their 
own  exalted  ideal  of  spiritual  life  in  God.  It  wrought 
powerfully  in  Luther,  and  Knox,  and  Calvin,  and 
others,  to  precipitate  the  great  Eeformation.  It  was 
fire  in  their  bones,  and  they  could  but  speak  and 
act  in  setting  forth  God's  truth  to  an  ungodly  age.4 

1  Gen.  v.  22.  2  Heb.  xi.  4. 

3  Rev.  ii.  17  ;  John  vi.  32,  33.  *  Jer.  xx.  9  ;  Pa.  xxxix.  3. 


i68  Seed-Truths. 

God's  power  in  the  soul  will  find  expression,  as  by  the 
sacrificed  lanib  in  Abel,  the  ladder  in  Jacob,  the  lie- 
formation  in  Luther  and  his  coadjutors;  in  the  reli- 
gious settlement  of  the  JSTew  World  by  earnest  men ; 
in  the  field  preaching  of  Whitfield  and  the  Wesleys ; 
in  the  missions  of  Brainerd,  Martyn,  and  others. 
'  All  these  worketh  that  one  and  the  same  Spirit.' 1 
Who  will  say  that  these  are  not  potential  facts  of 
history  ? 

Though  piety  before  Abraham's  time,  a  period  of  about 
two  thousand  years,  was  without  organization  or  sym- 
bolized doctrines,  yet  its  spirit  was  the  same  as  now ; 
in  reference  to  which  our  Lord  no  doubt  speaks  when 
He  says,  '  Before  Abraham  was,  I  am/ — a  thought  that 
refers,  I  think,  not  merely  to  eternity  of  being,  but  to 
His  working  in  the  earliest  times,  in  reference  to  which 
Jesus  says,  '  Abraham  rejoiced  to  see  my  day ;  and  he 
saw  it,  and  was  glad.'2  Under  that  patriarch  the  doc- 
trines of  the  gospel  took  form;  and  'the  Scripture, 
foreseeing  that  God  would  justify  the  heathen  through 
faith,  preached  before  the  gospel  unto  Abraham,  saying, 
In  thee  shall  all  nations  be  blessed.'3  Justification  to 
Abraham  was  precisely  what  it  had  been  before  to 
pious  men,  consisting  in  no  outward  form,  but  in  the 
restored  life  of  God  in  the  soul.  To  call  anything 
short  of  this  justification,  or  to  speak  of  a  man  under 
the  power  of  his  lusts  as  right  with  God,  is  to  call 
slavery  freedom,  and  hell  heaven. 

The  doctrine  of  the  new  birth,  as  consisting  in  a 
separation  from  our  carnal  state  to  live  and  walk  in 
tin;  Spirit,  is  the  first  doctrine  set  forth  in  Abraham's 
history:  'Get  thee  out  of  thy  country,  and  from  thy 
kindred,  and  from  thy  father's  house,  unto  a  land  that 
1 1  Cur.  xii.  11.  a  Jokii  viii.  £G  iS.  »  Gal.  iii.  8  ;  Gen.  xii.  3. 


Doctrine  in  History.  169 

I  'will  show  tliee.'1  What  Abraham's  life  had  pre- 
viously been  we  are  not  told,  except  that  he  lived 
among  ancestors  who  '  served  other  gods/  having  their 
household  divinities,  and  therefore  the  unfitting  asso- 
ciates of  one  solely  devoted  to  Jehovah.2  The  histo- 
rical fact  of  his  transfer  to  Canaan  was  the  symbol  of 
a  great  truth — that  no  man  since  the  fall  can  become 
a  servant  of  God,  without  a  separation  from  his  old 
life  in  the  flesh,  and  becoming  a  new  man  in  Christ 
Jesus.  It  was  an  acted,  not  a  written,  doctrine 
with  Abraham,  and  yet  is  the  same  with  that  so  often 
expressed  by  the  apostles  :  '  Ye  see  your  calling, 
brethren;'  'that  ye  may  know  what  is  the  hope  of 
your  calling ; '  '  ye  are  called  in  one  hope  of  your 
calling ; '  '  the  prize  of  the  high  calliitg  of  God  in 
Christ  Jesus  ; '  '  we  pray  always  that  God  may  count 
you  worthy  of  this  calling  ; '  *  make  your  calling  and 
election  sure.'  '  Come  out  from ,  among  them,  and  be 
ye  separated,  saith  the  Lord,  and  touch  not  the  unclean 
thing;  and  I  will  receive  you,  and  will  be  a  father 
unto  you,  and  ye  shall  be  my  sons  and  daughters,  saith 
the  Lord  Almighty.'  Indeed,  the  acted  principle  of  the 
Hebrew  polity,  as  well  as  of  the  Christian  church,  was 
one  of  detachment  from  other  nations,  or  from  a  fleshly 
life  and  worldly  men,  to  signify  a  difference  of  origin, 
like  being  born  of  spirit  and  being  born  of  flesh.3 

Abraham's  first  step,  therefore,  symbolized  a  great 
doctrine,  the  lack  of  which  seems  to  have  caused  the 
retrocession  of  his  ancestors  into  idolatry,  as  it  had 
the  sons  of  God  before  the  flood  into  voluptuousness. 
Though  in  spirit  separated  from  the  world,  they  were 

1  Gen.  xii.  1.  2  Josh.  xxiv.  2  ;  Gen.  xxxi.  30-35. 

8  1  Cor.  i.  26  ;  Eph.  iv.  4  ;  Phil.  iii.  14  ;  2  Thess.  i.  11  ;  2  Tim.  i.  9  ; 
Heb.  iii.  1  ;  2  Pet.  i.  10 ;  2  Cor.  vi.  17,  18  ;  John  iii.  6,  vi.  63. 


1 70  Seed-  Truths. 

not  in  fact,  but  lived  intermixed  with  the  carnal  and 
worldly,  and  hence  their  apostasy.  Abraham  lived  a 
life  of  separation,  or  of  consecration,  and  thus  sym- 
bolized a  doctrine  which  has  become  a  permanent 
article  of  the  true  faith. 

Another  doctrine  brought  out  in  his  life  is  that  of  a 
divine,  call,  as  the  source  of  all  true  godliness.  True 
religion  is  not  intellectual  culture,  nor  a  change  of 
opinion,  nor  a  new  status  of  the  outward  life  ;  but  it 
is  an  infusion  of  grace,  or  a  new  life,  from  God.  '  Ye 
have  not  chosen  me,  but  I  have  chosen  you.'  '  We 
love  Him, because  He  first  loved  us.'1  Why  should 
God  interest  Himself  in  recovering  us  from  our  natural 
state,  if  there  was  any  possibility  of  our  doing  it  for 
ourselves  ?  Can  the  guilty  make  themselves  inno- 
cent ?  Theology  is  prior  to  the  church,  as  seeding  is 
before  the  harvest.  Abraham  might  have  emigrated 
to  Syria  from  Mesopotamia,  as  thousands  of  others  in 
all  ages  have  changed  countries  ;  and  it  would  have 
had  no  significance  beyond  the  improvement  of  his 
worldly  condition.  But  doing  it  in  obedience  to  a 
call  from  God  gave  a  religious  character  to  the  act, 
and  made  it  to  all  subsequent  ages  the  symbol  of  a 
life  directed  by  the  Spirit  of  God  instead  of  our 
natural  impulses.  As  a  man  must  live  before  per- 
forming the  functions  of  life,  so  a  soul  dead  in  sin 
must  be  quickened  together  with  Christ  before  begin- 
ning his  pilgrimage  to  the  New  Jerusalem.  The 
outward  shaping  of  the  church  in  any  particular  age 
is  somewhat  like  the  course  of  a  river,  which  meanders 
through  valleys,  rushes  in  cascades,  or  winds  around 
mountains,  according  to  the  country  through  which  it 
flows.  Abraham's  life  was  nomadic,  like  that  of  tho 

1  John  xv.  10  ;  1  John  iv.  19. 


Doctrine  in  History.  171 

tribes  among  whom  he  lived.  The  institutions  of 
Moses  were  a  revision  of  many  previous  customs, 
adapting  them  to  sacred  uses,  and  the  subsequent 
career  of  his  nation  became  a  part  of  general  his- 
tory, being  more  or  less  mixed  up  with  the  ideas  and 
doings  of  other  nations  ;  while  the  Christian  church 
took  form  from  the  synagogue  worship,  and  was  more  or 
less  modified  by  the  state  of  civil  society.  Thus  the 
heavenly  call  or  power  wrought  out  its  results  like 
leaven  in  meal,  not  to  convert  barley  into  wheat,  but 
to  assimilate  both  the  one  and  the  other  class  of  mind 
and  culture  into  its  own  forms  of  spiritual  thought 
and  feeling.  -It  melts  Jew  and  Gentile  into  one  spirit, 
not  into  one  form  of  civil  government,  nor  into  the 
same  social  customs,  modes  of  dress,  or  general  usage. 
Those  who  think  to  accept  Christian  doctrine  as  some- 
thing dropped  into  them  directly  from  heaven  will  be 
disappointed.  '  Search  the  Scriptures,'  said  our  Lord  ; 
'  Compare  spiritual  things  with  spiritual,'1  taught  an 
apostle ;  neither  of  which  can  be  done  without  going 
over  the  inspired  documents  from  Moses  to  John  the 
evangelist.  This  is  the  channel  through  which  the 
pure  river  of  doctrine  comes  from  God  to  us ;  and  let 
no  one  demur  at  following  up  this  river  because  it 
flows  upon  rocks,  around  headlands,  over  sands,  and 
through  regions  so  much  more  barbarous  and  inhos- 

O  O 

pitable  than  our  own.  Truths  from  God  must  be 
sought  in  the  writings'' which  He  has  dictated  in  his- 
tories, and  institutions  moulded  by  His  own  hand. 

Covenant  relationship  to  God  is  another  doctrine  lived 
by  Abraham.     It  is  '  avouching  the  Lord  to  be  our  God, 
to  walk  in  His  ways,  and  to  keep  His  statutes,  and  com- 
mandments, and  judgments,  and  to  hearken  unto  His 
1  John  v.  39  j  1  Cor.  ii.  13. 


172  Seed-  Truths. 

voice ;'  and  it  is  to  have  '  God  avouch  us  to  be  His 
peculiar  people.'1  This  is  a  personal  matter  between 
God  and  our  own  souls,  and  cannot  be  done  by  proxy. 
It  admits  of  no  sham,  but  is  a  great  fact  of  the  in- 
ward life,  in  which  God  alone  reveals  Himself.  It  is 
admitting  God  to  the  throne  of  our  hearts,  in  place  of 
that  world  by  which  we  have  been  so  long  and  so 
disastrously  ruled.  A  man  under  the  oath  of  allegiance 
to  a  government  is  bound  in  all  things  by  its  laws  and 
institutions.  And  when  God  said  to  Abraham,  '  My 
covenant  is  between  thee  and  me/  and  the  agreement 
was  ratified  by  mutual  consent,  there  was  no  disan- 
nulling it,  or  avoiding  its  responsibilities:  '  It  was  an 
everlasting  covenant.'2  Whatever  God  should  require, 
the  soul  under  such  bonds  is  bound  to  do. 

But  could  he  do  it  without  fq.Hk  ?  How  could  a 
soul  be  justified  or  right  with  God,  without  implicitly 
relying  upon  all  that  God  told  him  ?  Unbelief  un- 
settles confidence  and  annuls  the  contract.  God  has 
no  outward  police  to  compel  submission  in  a  refractory 
spirit.  When  our  will  rebels,  the  flesh  is  supreme  in 
us,  and  how  can  we  serve  God  and  the  world  at  the 
same  time  ?8  How  can  we  be  in  covenant  with  hostile 
forces  ?  The  compact  with  God  takes  effect  primarily 
upon  our  souls,  and  is  an  individual  and  not  a  com- 
munity transaction.4  The  nation  of  Israel  did  indeed 
stand  for  a  time  in  that  relation ;  but  it  was  for  the 
special  purpose  of  representing  outwardly  the  spiritual 
compact  between  individual  souls  and  God.  They 
lost  their  position,  however,  through  unbelief,  and  the 
apostles  explicitly  show,  that '  only  they  which  are  of 

>  Dent.  xxvL  17,  18.        f  Gen.  xvii.  3-7,  13.         «  Luke  xvi.  13. 
4  It  becomes  a  community  influence,  by  '  baptizing  those  who  feel  it 
Into  one  Udy,'  the  church.     1  Cor.  xii.  13. 


Doctrine  in  History.  1 73 

faith  are  the  children  of  faithful  Abraham/1  Our  faith, 
like  that  of  Abraham,  must  have  its  trials ;  and  '  by 
works  it  must  be  made  perfect,'  as  his  was  when  he 
offered  up  his  only  son  of  promise,  and  thus  became 
heir  of  the  world,  and  the  father  of  all  that  believe.2 
Who  does  not  see  that  the  significance  of  this  trans- 
action is  in  elevating  faith  to  its  true  position,  as  that 
exercise  by  which  spiritual  truths  are  made  real  and 
potential  to  us,  and  which  alone  makes  us  pleasing  to 
God  and  in  union  with  Him  ?  This  is  everywhere  the 
doctrine  of  faith  in  the  New  Testament.3 

The  Divine  Incarnation  is  another  doctrine  included 
in  Abraham's  history.  '  He  saith  not,  To  seeds,  as  of 
many,  but  as  of  one,  And  to  thy  seed,  which  is  Christ/ 
is  the  apostle's  reasoning  on  the  subject.4  The  Incar- 
nation in  the  person  of  Christ  was  in  order  to  the 
indwelling  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  /church ;  as  He 
Himself  says,  '  I  in  themt  and  Thou  in  me,  that  they 
may  be  made  perfect  in  one ;'  or  as  the  apostle  ex- 
presses it,  '  that  we  might  receive  the  promise  of  the 
Spirit  through  faith.'  '  This  promise  is  to  you  and  your 
children,  and  to  all  that  are  afar  off,  even  as  many  as 
the  Lord  our  God  shall  call,'  as  He  called  Abraham 
to  a  spiritual  and  holy  life.5  All  these  passages  are 
founded  in  the  old  Hebrew  idea  of  the  nephesh  or  soul 
as  open  to  two  worlds,  the  spiritual  and  the  natural, 
and  the  destined  sanctuary  and  throne  of  the  Most 
High  in  establishing  His  kingdom  here  below.  It  had 
been  lost  by  man's  rejection  of  God  in  order  to  come 

1  Gal.  iii.  7-9;  Kom.  iv.  9-13,  ix.  8. 

2  Jas.  ii.  21-23;  Gen.  xxii.  9-12. 

3  Heb.  xi.  6  ;  John  xi.  25,  26,  iii.  36  ;  Mark  xvi.  16  ;  Acts  xvi.  31. 

4  Gal.  iii.  16  ;  Gen.  xii.  3,  7. 

*  Jolm  xviL  23;  Gal.  iii.  14;  Acts  ii.  39. 


174  Seed-Truths. 

under  the  ruling  of  the  flesh,  and  is  now  restored  in 
the  faith  of  Abraham  and  in  his  promised  seed  as  the 
re-enthroned  Divinity  in  all  that  believe.  This  is  the 
doctrine  of  Abraham's  seed. 

Circumcision  also  was  more  a  doctrine  than  a  fact. 
As  a  fact,  it  was  a  mark  of  distinction  between  Israel 
and  other  nations  ;  but  as  a  doctrine,  'it  is  of  the  heart, 
in  the  spirit,  and  not  in  the  flesh/  '  We  are  the  cir- 
cumcision, who  worship  God  in  the  spirit,  and  rejoice 
in  Christ  Jesus,  having  no  confidence  in  the  flesh ;' 
it  is  '  made  without  hands,  in  putting  off  the  body  cf 
the  sins  of  the  flesh,  by  the  circumcision  of  Christ/ 
or  by  the  excision  of  worldly  desires  by  His  grace 
operating  in  our  souls.1  Even  the  prophets  deduced 
from  the  rite  a  like  significance,  calling  upon  the 
people  to  circumcise  their  hearts,  to  put  away  their 
worldly  appetites,  and  come  under  God's  spiritual 
dominion.2  Here  we  have  the  same  ideas  brought  to 
view  as  in  our  baptism,  in  which  we  are  buried  and 
raised  with  Christ,  as  the  apostle  shows,  and  are  '  sanc- 
tified and  cleansed  with  the  washing  of  water  by  the 
word,  that  we  may  be  presented  to  Christ  a  glorious 
church,  not  having  spot,  or  wrinkle,  or  any  such  thing ; 
but  that  it  should  be  holy  and  without  blemish.'3  Thus 
in  all  the  rites  and  histories  of  the  Old  Testament 
come  to  view  underlying  doctrines  of  man's  spiritual 
state,  and  the  changes  which  it  undergoes  in  redeem- 
ing him  to  God  out  of  every  kingdom,  and  tongue,  and 
people  under  heaven.  All  are  founded  in  the  fact  of 
the  soul's  twofold  relations  to  spirit  and  to  matter. 

Another  doctrine  of  Abraham's    career  is   that  of 

*  Rom.  ii.  29;  Phil.  iii.  8;  Col.  ii  11. 
8  D.'iit.  x.  16;  Jer.  iv.  4. 
•Col.  ii.  12;  Eph.  v.  26,  27. 


Doctrine  in  History.  175 

Jirrnrn  as  an  aggregation  of  kindred  spirits.  'In  a 
good  old  age,  an  old  man,  full  of  days  and  satisfied,  lie 
was  gathered  to  his  people.'  '  Satisfied,'  as  the  word 
means,  or  happy  to  go,  like  a  man  from  a  long  journey 
reposing  again  in  the  bosom  of  his  family,  he  took 
his  place  in  '  the  better  country,  that  is,  an  heavenly ; 
wherefore  God  is  not  ashamed  to  be  called  their  God : 
for  He  hath  prepared  for  them  a  city/  And  our  Lord 
adduces  the  fact  that  God  called  Himself  '  the  God  of 
Abraham'  as  evidence  of  the  soul's  immortality;  'for 
He  is  not  a  God  of  the  dead,  but  of  the  living.'1 
Abraham  never  owned  a  foot  of  the  land  in  which  he 
sojourned,  except  a  burial-place,  for  his  dead,  showing 
how  entirely  his  hopes  centred  in  the  promised  seed 
and  in  his  heavenly  home.  In  Abraham's  history, 
therefore,  fact  is  doctrine,  and  doctrine  is  fact. 
1  Gen.  xxiii.  3,  4,  xvii.  20,  xxv.  8 ;  Heb.  xi.  16 ;  Matt,  xxii  32. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 
DOCTRINE  IN  WORDS  AND  SYMBOLS. 

AS  doctrinal  truths  were  inward  experiences  or 
intuitions  to  the  early  patriarchs,  and  history 
in  Abraham  so  under  Moses  they  took  on  the  form 
of  words  and  symbols.  The  process  reminds  one  of 
growth  in  a  child's  mind  from  sensations  to  ideas,  and 
from  ideas  to  words  and  symbols.  The  endeavour  of 
sensation  is  towards  thought,  and  of  thought  towards 
expression.  Thus,  twenty-five  hundred  years  of  de- 
tached revelations  and  experiences  among  holy  men  at 
length  found  embodiment  in  the  ceremonial  law.  And 
they  were  still  further  chiselled  out  in  the  Israelitish 
history.  The  redemption  of  that  people  from  Egyp- 
tian slavery  by  power  and  a  stretched-out  arm  sym- 
bolized our  escape  from  the  bondage  of  the  flesh  by  the 
power  of  grace  ;  their  wilderness  life  of  forty  years,  and 
partial  conquest  of  Canaan,  where  many  enemies  re- 
mained as  'pricks  in  their  eyes  and  thorns  in  their 
hands/1  is  a  type  of  our  earthly  warfare  and  partial 
sanctification ;  their  apostasy  and  subsequent  captivity 
but  too  faithfully  resemble  our  backsliding  and  its  sad 
consequences ;  and  thus  the  whole  outward  life  of  that 
nation  put  into  form  and  expression  the  inward  work- 
ing of  antagonistic  forces  in  Christ's  church. 

Our  purpose  is  not  to  expound  these  symbols,  but 
1  Num.  xxxiii.  55. 
176 


Doctrine  in  Words  and  Symbols.        177 

to  show  their  position  and  necessity  in  redemption,  or 
in  recovering  a  people  to  God's  praise  out  of  this  cor- 
rupted and  enslaved  world.  The  ceremonial  law  and 
Jewish  history  will  be  found  singularly  pertinent  to 
what  the  seers  saw  in  the  nature  of  man. 

Truths  are  realities,  and  words  the  expression  of 
them.  Words  and  symbols  are  the  soil  which  the  seed 
must  take  on  in  order  to  a  harvest.  They  do  not 
originate  truths  nor  change  their  nature,  but  put  them 
into  a  form  to  be  understood  and  used  by  men  in  the 
flesh.  Multiplication  and  interest  tables  do  not  make 
or  alter  the  relation  of  numbers,  but  they  are  a  great 
convenience  to  learners  and  business  men.  So  spiritual 
truths  existed  in  full  force  before  they  were  expressed 
in  terms  to  be  apprehended  by  us.  But  now  that  they 
are  so  expressed,  our  business  is  to  search  for  them 
in  words  and  symbols  as  for  hid  treasures.  'Search 
the  Scriptures;'  'Hold  fast  the  form  of  sound  words;' 
'  Having  the  form  of  knowledge  and  truth  in  the  law;' — 
these  are  passages  that  clearly  show  where  saving  truths 
are  to  be  found,  and  our  duty  in  reference  to  them.1 
The  practice  of  Christ  and  His  apostles,  of  casting  their 
ideas  in  the  symbolical  mould  of  the  Old  Testament,  is 
an  example  for  us ;  and  those  who  follow  it  the  most 
closely  make  the  most  effective  sermons,  and  have  the 
greatest  spiritual  power.  The  essay  style  of  our  modern 
pulpit  is  mere  moonshine  in  comparison.  Books  to 
melt  the  truths  of  the  Bible  into  the  fashionable  litera- 
ture of  the  present  day  are  a  dead  failure.  We  can 
scarcely  better  dispense  with  Bible  words  and  symbols 
than  with  Bible  truths  themselves.  'The  form  of 
sound  words '  is  as  much  a  revelation  from  God  as  the 
doctrines  which  they  contain. 

1  Pi-uv.  ii.  -i;  2  Tim.  i.  13;  Horn.  ii.  20. 
M 


178  Seed- Truths. 

God's  plan  of  symbolizing  His  truths  proceeds  on  the 
principle  that  the  world  was  as  destitute  of  appropriate 
modes  of  expressing  them  as  of  the  truths  themselves. 
Indeed,  how  should  it  be  otherwise  ?  How  can  men 
invent  words  to  express  ideas  which  are  not  in  their 
minds  ?  Ideas  must  precede  and  create  a  necessity  for 
language  before  language  can  exist.  And  as  spiritual 
truths  had  perished  from  the  human  mind,  except  in 
detached  cases,  and  natural  ideas  alone  remained,  how 
could  the  languages  that  took  their  rise  from  Babel 
under  these  circumstances  be  a  fitting  vehicle  of  a  reve- 
lation from  heaven  ?  As  well  use  a  Hottentot  dialect 
to  express  Locke's  work  on  the  Understanding.  In  all 
languages,  the  etymology  of  words  shows  that  they  had 
their  origin  in  material  ideas.  Soul  was  breath  ;  spirit, 
wind;  understanding,  standing  under;  circumspect,  look- 
ing around  ;  circumvent,  coming  round  :  and  thus  words, 
even  most  abstract  and  spiritual  in  their  present  mean- 
ing, began  with  a  material  idea.  There  are  a  few  ex- 
ceptions in  words  used  by  inspired  men ;  as  Jehovah, 
for  instance,  made  from  the  verb  to  be,  and  meaning 
Being  or  Eternal,  which  is  a  special  invention  to  denote 
an  idea  utterly  lost  to  the  nations.1  They  had  their 
Eloliim  or  local  gods, — a  term  often  applied  to  Jehovah, 
but  in  a  very  different  sense  from  their  use  of  it. 

Greek  is  confessed  to  be  the  most  finished  language 
in  the  world,  and  was  deeply  imbued  with  poetry,1 
philosophy,  and  oratory ;  and  yet  it  had  no  terms  to 
express  a  single  New  Testament  doctrine,  except  as 
Hebraized  or  accommodated  to  its  new  use.  De  Quin- 
cey  says  justly,  that  'the  ancients  (meaning  the  Greeks 
and  Romans  before  the  time  of  Christianity)  had  no 
idea,  not  by  the  faintest  veetige,  of  what  in  the  scrip- 
1  Ex.  vi.  3. 


Doctrine  in  Words  and  Symbols.        1 79 

tural  system  is  called  sin.  The  Latin  word  peccatum, 
and  the  Greek  word  amartia,  are  translated  continually 
by  the  word  sin ;  but  neither  one  word  nor  the  other 
has  any  such  meaning  in  writers  of  the  pure,  classical 
period.  When  baptized  into  a  new  meaning  by  the 
adoption  of  Christianity,  these  words,  in  common  with 
many  others,  transmigrated  into  new  philosophical 
functions.  But  originally  they  tended  towards  no  such 
acceptations,  nor  could  have  done  so ;  seeing  that  the 
ancients  had  no  avenue  opened  to  them  through  which 
the  profound  idea  would  have  been  even  dimly  intel- 
ligible. Plato,  four  hundred  years  before  Christ,  or 
Cicero,  more  than  three  hundred  years  later,  was  fully 
equal  to  the  idea  of  guilt  in  all  its  gamut;  but  no 
more  equal  to  the  idea  of  sin,  than  a  sagacious  hound 
to  the  idea  of  gravitation  or  central  forces.  It  is  the 
tremendous  postulate  upon  which  this  idea  reposes  that 
constitutes  the  initial  moment  of  that  revelation  which 
is  common  to  Judaism  and  Christianity/  He  then 
adds,  in  words  before  quoted :  '  Guilt,  in  all  its  modifica- 
tions, implies  only  a  defect  or  wound  in  the  individual. 
Sin,  on  the  other  hand,  the  most  mysterious  and  the 
most  sorrowful  of  all  ideas,  implies  a  taint  in  the  indi- 
vidual, not  through  any  local  disease  of  his  own,  but 
through  a  scrofula  equally  diffused  through  the  infinite 
family  of  man.  This  idea  was  utterly  and  exquisitely 
inappreciable  by  pagan  Greece  or  Rome.' 1 

The  race  of  man  from  Adam  to  Moses,  a  period  of 
twenty-five  hundred  years,  was  so  occupied  and  domi- 
nated by  natural  or  fleshly  ideas,  as  to  completely  lose 
the  sense  of  its  moral  and  spiritual  status.  Though 
infinitely  removed  from  the  spiritual  life  of  Eden,  they 
were  as  insensible  of  it  as  we  of  the  millions  of  miles 

1  Am.  ed.  of  bis  works,  pp.  2«S,  239. 


180  Seed-Truths. 

intervening  in  absolute  space  between  our  location  in 
summer  and  winter,  because  we  have  no  faculties  by 
which  to  detect  the  earth's  daily  movement  in  its 
orbit.  Men  had  no  landmarks  by  which  to  tell  what 
holiness  is,  or  how  far  they  had  wandered  from  it. 
How,  then,  should  they  have  any  words  or  symbols  to 
express  a  true  idea  of  either  sin  or  holiness  ?  To  im- 
part to  them  spiritual  truths  was  even  a  greater  task 
than  to  elevate  the  lowest  and  most  beastly  race  of 
savages  to  the  highest  state  of  civilisation. 

The  words  and  symbols  of  doctrine  were  created  to 
meet  this  great  necessity.  It  must  be  an  outward 
process,  of  course,  because  there  was  no  chance  of  de- 
veloping the  requisite  truths  and  ideas  from  within, 
as  thoughts  spring  from  sensations,  and  words  from 
thoughts,  in  the  growth  of  a  child.  '  Who  can  bring 
a  clean  thing  out  of  an  unclean  ?  Not  one.' l  As  the 
human  mind  had  become  closed  to  all  but  natural  ideas, 
in  order  to  reach  it  at  all,  it  must  be  through  that 
channel  in  reference  to  which  God  is  said  to  '  come 
down  to  deliver/  to  '  come  down  upon  Mount  Sinai,' 
to  '  bow  the  heavens  and  come  down.' 2  There  is  no 
change  of  location  in  God,  but  only  of  His  attitude  in 
dealing  with  us,  which  was  originally  through  the  spi- 
ritual or  higher  faculties  of  our  nature,  but  now  through 
our  natural  or  lower  faculties.  He  condescends  to  us, 
since  we  cannot  rise  to  Him.  He  knocks  at  the  outer 
gateway  of  the  soul,  seeing  that  the  inner  is  closed. 
We  meet  with  God  by  attending  prayerfully  to  the 
outward  word,  and  opening  to  Him  that  door,  that  ITe 
may  'come  in  and  sup  with  us,  and  we  with  Him.' :J 
The  apostle  expresses  a  like  idea,  when  he  speaks  of 

*  Jol,  xiv.  4.  »  Ex.  iii.  8  ;  Num.  xi.  17  ;  Isa.  Ixiv.  1. 

•  ikv.  iii.  *;). 


Doctrine  in  Words  and  Symbols.        1 8 1 

talking  as  with  babes  to  those  who  were  too  carnal  to 
be  spoken  to  as  men.  He  condescended  to  their  low 
apprehensions.1  The  material  forms  of  the  ceremonial 
law  grew  out  of  this  necessity  of  reaching  men  through 
this  carnal  channel,  and  thus  educating  them  to  the 
effigy  of  spiritual  truths,  preparatory  to  their  ultimately 
receiving  those  truths  in  their  own  nature,  or  as  '  spiri- 
tually discerned.' 2 

But  why  not  do  all  this  at  once  ?  "Why  protract 
the  process  through  two  thousand  years  ?  Was  not 
God  able  to  do  it  for  all  men,  as  He  did  it  for  Abraham 
and  Moses  ?  No,  not  in  accordance  with  His  own  laws 
of  moral  agency  and  development.  These  inspired 
men  had  been  prepared  for  their  mission,  not  only  by 
their  own  training,  but  by  ages  of  previous  divine  illu- 
mination descending  from  their  forefathers,  and  centring 
in  their  minds.  Is  it  not  easier  to  induct  into  science 
one  born  of  scientific  ancestors,  than  one  born  in  a 
savage  condition,  and  of  savage  forefathers  ?  The  writer 
claims  no  ability  to  explain  the  motives  of  God's  con- 
duct, but  only  to  interpret  obvious  facts.  The  fire 
from  heaven  must  have  wood  and  a  victim  to  light 
upon ;  and  also  it  must  work  its  miracle  of  burning 
among  minds  attent  and  anxious  for  the  settlement  of 
great  moral  questions,  as  with  Elijah  on  Mount  Car- 
mel ;  or  how  could  a  spiritual  result  be  expected  to 
ensue  ?  The  whole  nation  was  '  halting '  between  the 
worship  of  Jehovah  and  that  of  Baal,  and  the  fire  came 
to  settle  their  minds.  A  band  of  savages  might  have 
stared  at  the  burning,  but  it  would  have  conveyed  no 
lesson  to  their  minds,  for  lack  of  previous  preparation.3 

But  why  did  not  God  create  among  men  the  requi- 
site preparation,  so  as  to  complete  the  whole  work  in  a 

1  1  Cor.  ifi.  1.  2  1  Cor.  ii.  14.  3  1  Kings  xviii.  17-40. 


1 8  2  Seed-  Truths. 

single  generation  ?  The  answer  is  obvious :  it  would 
have  withdrawn  them  from  the  moral  category,  and  re- 
duced them  to  a  government  of  force,  like  the  changes 
of  the  seasons.  Man's  free  moral  selfhood  cannot  be 
influenced  in  a  way  to  invade  its  prerogatives,  without 
making  him  merely  a  thing  to  be  disposed  of  by  natu- 
ral laws ;  and  the  result  would  be  neither  spiritual 
nor  moral  Within  its  castle  of  free-will  the  soul  is 
absolute,  and  no  being  in  the  universe  more  carefully 
respects  its  authority  than  God  Himself,  as  His  deal- 
ings with  an  untoward  and  rebellious  race  from  the 
beginning  of  time  fully  show.  If  it  were  in  our  power, 
as  in  His,  to  annihilate  the  things  which  we  deem  giant 
wrongs,  how  long  wrould  they  hold  out  ?  The  Pope's 
(Ecumenical  Council  would  be  deluged  with  ashes  from 
Vesuvius,  like  Pompeii  and  Herculaneum,  if  our  policy 
were  to  prevail  instead  of  His,  who  '  suffereth  long,  and 
is  kind.' 1  Man's  freedom  would  have  perished,  and 
his  hope  of  spirituality  with  it,  had  God  acted  on  our 
narrow  policy  in  governing  the  world.  When  the 
Spirit's  baptism  came  on  Pentecost,  it  came  to  men  ex- 
traordinarily prepared,  not  only  by  their  intercourse 
with  the  Son  of  God,  but  by  a  two  thousand  years' 
previous  history,  shaping  their  thought  and  their  lan- 
guage, and  preparing  the  world  for  their  message. 
Scarce  a  province  could  be  found  on  which  the  religion 
of  Abraham  and  Moses  had  not  reflected  its  light. 

Look  now  at  a  few  of  the  truths  chiselled  by  the 
ceremonial  law  into  relief  upon  the  granite  surface  of 
Inn  nan  nature.  Take,  for  example,  the  distinction  be- 
tween clean  and  unclean,  in  beasts,  persons,  utensils, 
garments,  places,  and  everything  pertaining  to  daily 
life.  It  was  sure  death  to  a  person  deemed  unclean 
1  1  for.  xiii.  4. 


Doctrine  in  Words  and  Symbols.        183 

to  obtrude  within  the  sacred  precincts  of  the  temple. 
More  than  once,  Paul's  intercourse  with  the  Gentiles 
well-nigh  cost  him  his  life  among  the  Jews.  Peter 
could  be  persuaded  only  by  a  miracle  to .  enter  a 
Gentile's  house.1  To  eat  with  unwashen  hands  was 
an  enormous  crime.2  These  and  a  thousand  other 
things,  perverted  no  doubt,  yet  even  in  their  per- 
version showed  how  deeply  Moses'  law  had  ploughed 
the  distinction  between  clean  and  unclean  into  the 
Jewish  mind,  and  through  that  people  into  a  wide  area 
of  Gentile  thought  and  feeling.'  When,  therefore,  this 
thought  and  feeling  were  turned  from  ceremonial  to 
moral  pollution,  as  consisting  in  the  general  depravity 
of  the  race  and  in  all  wrong-doing,  how  tremendous 
were  the  ensuing  throes  of  conviction !  Under  Peter's 
sermon  three  thousand  suddenly  awoke  to  such  a  sense 
of  their  utter  moral  corruption,  as  to  cry  out  at  once, 
'Men  and  brethren,  what  shall  we  do?'3  Their  par- 
ticipation in  our  Lord's  crucifixion  no  doubt  wrought 
in  their  minds ;  but  their  training  under  the  law, 
giving  them  an  intense  horror  of  being  considered 
unclean  before  God,  no  doubt  had  its  effect.  The 
time  had  come,  foretold  by  the  prophet,  when  they 
should  discern  the  real  distinction  between  clean  and 
unclean — that  it  was  not  ceremonial,  but  in  being 
righteous  or  wicked,  serving  God  or  serving  Him  not.4 
They  now  -first  understood  what  it  is  to  be  unclean. 

The  ceremonial  law  reduced  to  symbol  truths  that 
became  power  under  the  gospel,  as  the  building  of  the 
tabernacle  provided  a  seat  for  the  theocratic  govern- 
ment. Without  some  such  embodiment  to  the  idea 
of  men,  or  upon  which  their  materialized  thought 

1  Acts  x.  28.  *  Matt.  xv.  2. 

a  Ads  ii.  37.  4  iJal.  iii.  18. 


1 84  Secd-TrutJis. 

might  take  hold,  spiritual  truths  could  have  gained  no 
foothold  in  human  nature.  They  must  be  seen  acting 
in  outward  life,  or  they  would  be,  like  numerical  ab- 
stractions or  unexpressed  geometrical  relations,  utterly 
inaccessible  to  minds  without  spiritual  apprehension. 
And  now  that  these  truths  are  expressed  in  the  altar 
service  of  the  Jewish  tabernacle,  the  terms  and  forms 
of  thought  thence  derived  have  become  essential  to  the 
understanding  and  propagation  of  them.  A  latitudi- 
narian  missionary,  who,  in  disgust  of  Hebraistic  forms 
of  thought,  should  invent  some  other  vocabulary  with 
which  to  graft  Christian  ideas  upon  the  pure  reason  of 
the  literary  Chinese,  for  instance,  would  live  and  die 
in  a  nightmare.  It  would  be  an  agonized  effort  to 
speak  without  a  voice,  and  to  be  heard  by  those  who 
have  no  ears.  The  forms  of  thought  supplied  by  the 
law  of  Moses  and  Hebrew  history  are  as  much  a  part 
of  Christianity  as  a  man's  body  is  of  himself. 

It  may  be  difficult  to  illustrate  our  precise  idea  of 
the  position  of  ceremonial  law  and  Hebrew  history  in 
the  plan  of  redeeming  mercy.  Suppose,  however,  that 
there  was  no  civilisation  in  the  world,  no  such  nations 
as  London,  Paris,  and  New  York  represent,  but  all 
mankind  wer§  Caffres  and  Patagonians,  and  an  at- 
tempt were  made  to  introduce  civilisation,  how  should 
it  proceed  ?  Suppose  the  more  favoured  denizens  of 
another  planet  were  to  engage  in  the  work,  could  they 
do  anything  with  words  explaining  a  condition  of 
civilisation ;  its  advantages  over  a  savage  state ;  its 
sciences,  arts,  and  exquisite  refinements  in  thought  and 
manners  ?  No,  for  the  languages  of  earth  would  have 
no  words  for  such  ideas.  And  how  could  they  teach 
by  example,  when  no  model  community  could  be 
ottered  to  their  consideration  ?  and  if  there  were,  a 


Doctrine  in  Words  and  Symbols.        185 

savage  mind  would  deem  his  own  state  vastly  pre- 
ferable. What  could  be  done  in  the  case,  but  to 
introduce  law  and  order  into  things  pertaining  to  daily 
savage  life  ?  These  they  understand ;  and  by  enacting 
under  severe  penalties  that  they  must  wash  themselves 
every  day,  to  recover  them  from  their  filthy  habits, 
you  come  within  the  range  of  their  comprehension. 
They  are  cannibals,  or  they  eat  the  vilest  animals ; 
and  by  putting  them  upon  a  specific  diet  on  pain  of 
death,  you  give  them  some  notion  of  clean  and  unclean, 
or  of  the  food  fit  for  a  civilised  people.  They  have  no 
standard  of  right  and  justice  among  themselves,  and 
this  must  be  enacted  and  enforced.  And  so  of  every- 
thing relating  to  their  enjoyments.  Law  and  order 
are  essential  elements  of  civilisation,  as  well  as  truth, 
justice,  and  intelligence ;  and  these  can  be  enforced  in 
reference  to  the  lowest  things  of  life  equally  with  those 
which  are  highest,  and  the  one  may  be  made  to  reflect 
the  other.  And  the  term  law  as  used  by  the  apostles, 
though  it  has  respect  to  the  ceremonies  required  by 
Moses,  manifestly  includes,  by  representation,  some- 
thing far  higher  and  more  spiritual  than  the  outward 
acts  in  which  they  consisted.1  So  of  the  civilising 
process  which  we  have  supposed:  though  beginning 
with  the  things  on  a  level  with  a  savage,  still  it  would 
be  to  represent  law  in  a  higher  sense,  as  pertaining  to 
greater  intellectual  advancement. 

Now  the  foregoing  case  is  an  approximate  statement 
of  the  position  of  the  ceremonial  law,  'which  stood 
only  in  meats  and  drinks,  and  divers  washings,  and 
carnal  ordinances,'  '  a  figure  for  the  time  then  present/ 
but  '  imposed  until  the  time  of  reformation,'  or  till  men 

1  Rom.  ii.  15,  20,  25,  iii.  19-31,  v.  13-20 ;  Gal.  ii.  16-21 ;  Hub. 
Tii.  11. 


1 86  Seed-Truths. 

* 

could  be  educated  up  to  something  better.1  The  holy 
place,  or  outer  sanctuary,  where  the  priests  performed 
their  daily  ministrations,  being  open  to  the  comers  and 
goers  in  the  surrounding  courts,  gives  an  idea  of  the 
natural  faculties  of  man  illuminated  by  divine  truth 
as  represented  in  the  candlestick,2  showing  that  those 
activities  which  are  concerned  about  the  affairs  of  this 
life,  are  to  be  guided  by  the  law  of  God.  These  mini- 
strations in  outward  things  had  thus  a  spiritual  signifi- 
cance, just  as  laws  regulating  a  savage  life  would  be 
with  a  view  to  something  higher.  Separated  from  this 
room  by  a  thin  veil  was  the  holy  of  holies,  where  were 
the  ark,  the  tables  of  the  law1,  the  cherubim,  and  the 
earthly  throne  of  Jehovah,  who  administered  there  by 
visible  tokens  the  government  of  His  people.  It  was 
then  a  kingdom  of  symbols ;  it  is  now  a  kingdom  of 
grace ;  but  hereafter  it  is  to  be  a  kingdom  of  glory. 
The  way  into  the  holy  of  holies  is  our  medium  of 
access  to  God  through  the  human  nature  of  Christ,  who 
says,  '  I  am  the  way,'  and  '  No  man  cometh  unto  the 
Father  but  by  me.' 3  The  clean  animals,  as  alone  fit 
for  sacrifice,  are  the  purified  affections  and  the  holy 
life,  which  God  can  alone  accept  as  offerings  from  us. 
The  universal  sprinkling  of  blood  shows  the  neces- 
sary inflowing  spiritual  current  of  life  from  God,  of 
which  blood  is  the  emblem,  to  render  our  prayers  and 
offerings,  and  everything  pertaining  to  our  activities, 
acceptable  to  God.  As  the  inbreathed  life  from  God 
made  Adam  spiritual,  and  put  a  heavenly  impress  upon 
his  whole  outward  life,  so  with  us,  it  is  'the  spirit  that 
quickeneth,  the  flesh  profiteth  no  tiling;'4  and  our  whole 

1  I  Id),  ix.  6-12.  »Heb.  ix.  2. 

•  Heb.  ix.  8  ;  John  xiv.  6  ;  Eph.  ii.  13. 

4  Lev.  xxii.  20,  21,  25-,  John  vi.  03  ;  I'ph.  v.  27  ;  Heb.  xiii.  15. 


Doctrine  in  Words  and  Symbols.        187 

being  is  thus  purified  by  what  blood  represents.1  The 
burning  of  the  refuse  without  the  camp,  and  the  escape 
of  the  duplicate  goat,  denote  a  total  annihilation  of  our 
fleshly  impurities,  or  their  '  separation  from  us  as  far  as 
the  east  is  from  the  west.' 2 

These  are  a  few  of  the  points  which  show  the 
general  spirit  of  the  Mosaic  ritual,  as  reflecting  a 
character  purified  from  fleshly  ruling,  and  restored  to 
God's  dominion  in  the  soul.  How  clearly  do  they 
contemplate  a  state  of  perfection  far  in  advance  of  the 
present  attainments  of  professing  Christians!  We  havo 
an  example  of  the  sort  of  life  contemplated  by  the  law, 
in  Him  who  came  to  fulfil  all  righteousness,  and  to 
magnify  the  law  and  make  it  honourable.3  He  ful- 
filled and  magnified  it,  by  converting  its  doctrine  into 
fact,  its  shadow  into  substance.  This  He  did,  not  as 
John  the  Baptist,  by  leading  an  ascetic  life,  but  by 
attending  weddings,  feasts,  and  mingling  in  all  the 
affairs  of  men,  and  subjecting  them  to  the  absolute 
ruling  of  the  '  Spirit  which  God  gave  Him  without 
measure.'4  f  There  are  ideas  of  power  in  God's  ap- 
pointed symbols  of  faith  which  have  never  been  fully 
reached  except  by  the  God-man. 

Thus  altar,  sacrifice,  holy  place,  holy  of  holies,  the 
tabernacle  and  its  ceremonial,  with  God's  administered 
government  over  Israel  from  Dan  to  Beersheba,  were 
to  the  material  age  for  which  they  were  instituted, 
what  object-teaching  is  to  our  children.  This  is  a  sort 
of  teaching  to  which  the  infant  is  committed  as  soon 
a.s  he  opens  his  eyes  upon  the  world ;  and  it  would  be 
vain  for  us  to  attempt  anything  for  him  higher  than 

1  Ex.  xxiv.  5-8  ;  Lev.  xvii.  11  ;  Heb.  ix.  22  ;  1  John  iii.  5,  i.  7. 
*  Lev.  iv.  11,  12,  xvi.  8-10;  Ps.  ciii.  12;  2  Cor.  vii.  1;  Eph.  v.  4. 
8  Matt.  iii.  15  ;  Isa.  xlii.  21.  4  John  iii.  34. 


1 88  Seed-Truths. 

sensible  impressions,  if  these  had  not  first  supplied 
him  with  a  fund  of  ideas  as  the  basis  of  a  more  intel- 
lectual li*e.  We  show  him  sheep,  oxen,  lions,  trees, 
triangles,  squares, "  parallelograms,  circles,  cones,  and 
tell  him  that  they  are  called  so  and  so,  and  have  such 
and  such  natures  and  uses,  and  by  this  process  it  was 
that  the  greatest  minds  rose  to  power  and  pre-eminence. 
By  a  like  process,  God  has  educated  a  materialized  race 
to  spiritual  truth  and  heavenly  life.  Words  would  be 
an  empty  sound,  without  truths  in  the  mind  for  tLeiu 
to  represent. 


CHAPTEE  XVH. 
WORDS  AND  SYMBOLS  IN  POWER. 

THE  power  of  words  and  symbols  is  not  in  argu- 
ments to  convince  the  reason,  nor  in  imposiiig 
scenes  to  impress  the  senses,  nor  in  eloquence  to  move 
the  feelings,  but  in  an  energy  from  God  acting 
through  them  to  restore  our  consciousness  of  His 
presence,  and  of  our  amenableness  to  Him.  As  there 
is  a  spiritual  universe  of  which  our  race  had  lost  the 
view  by  reason  of  sin,  and  it  must  regain  its  place 
in  our  minds  in  order  to  the  due  balance  of  our 
characters,  nothing  can  avail  with  us  which  does  not 
effect  this  object.  No  one  who  reads  the  Bible  can 
fail  to  see  that  it  was  penned  by  men  to  whom  the 
realm  of  spirits  was  as  much  a  reality  as  that  of  nature, 
and  its  truths  and  facts  transcendently  the  greater  of 
the  two.  The  one  is  mind,  the  other  body ;  the  one 
imperishable,  the  other  perishable  ;  and  as  every  volun- 
tary muscular  movement  is  an  act  of  the  mind,  so 
all  material  events,  from  the  feeding  and  falling  of 
sparrows,  the  numbering  of  our  hairs,  and  the  painting 
of  lilies,  to*  the  ordering  of  the  heavens  with  their 
luminaries,  are  acts  of  an  infinite  and  everywhere- 
present  intelligence.  Viewing  things  thus  is  the  habit 
of  all  spiritual  men.1 

The  general  state  of  thought  and  feeling  among  men, 

1  Matt.  vi.  26-30,  x.  29,  30  ;  Ps.  viii.  3. 
189 


1 90  Seed-  Tru  tJis. 

it  must  be  obvious,  is  quite  otherwise.  'God  is  not  in 
all  their  thoughts/  and  they  prosecute  their  enterprises 
with  indistinct  a$d  unavailing  conceptions  of  anything 
above  and  beyond  their  earthly  life.1  Or  if  they  give 
attention  to  church-going,  Sabbath-keeping,  or  other 
exercises  implying  a  higher  world,  it  is  more  with 
regard  to  the  decencies  of  society  than  from  any 
inward  feeling  of  their  relationship  to  God  and  im- 
mortality. Many  have  great  talent  with  little  con- 
science, '  ever  learning,  but  never  able  to  come  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  truth ;'  growing  rich  perhaps,  but  not 
'  towards  God ; '  having  a  wide  intellectual  grasp,  but 
no  wisdom  to  give  it  a  beneficent  direction.2  They 
are  paralytic  on  the  side  towards  God  and  the  spiritual 
universe,  turning  all  their  force  upon  the  world-side, 
which  is,  however,  encumbered,  misdirected,  and  un- 
availing. Is  it  not  easy  to  see,  that  the  first  thing 
in  healing  them  is  to  restore  this  paralyzed  side  to 
its  sensibility  to  God  and  spiritual  truths  ?  Can  a 
conscienceless  man  have  his  other  powers  improved, 
without  danger  to  himself  and  society  ? 

Much  is  said  of  setting  men  right  with  their  con- 
dition ;  a  necessity  which  all  parties  concede,  though 
they  differ  widely  as  to  how  it  is  to  be  done:  Some 
speak  as  if  education  and  civilisation  were  the  only 
panacea;  others  think  the  cure  must  be  effected  by 
exploding  all  ghostly  ideas,  and  bringing  men  to  the 
positive  and  the  tangible,  or  to  live  according  to  what 
they  call  nature ;  and  others  still  insist  upon  sub- 
mission to  a  worldly  hierarchy  and  its  rites,  in  order  to 
ensure  present  peace  and  future  salvation.  But  the 
inspired  writers  have  but  one  idea  on  the  subject, 

1  Ps.  x.  4,  xiv.  1,  liii.  1. 

•  2  Tim.  iii.  7  ;  Luke  xii.  21  ;  Ps.  xciv.  11. 


Words  and  Symbols  in  Power.          191 

which  is,  that  as  God  and  spiritual  truths  have  lost 
their  hold  upon  us,  and  this  is  the  primary  source  of 
our  evils,  there  is  no  setting  us  right  but  by  re-estab- 
lishing their  dominion,  and  bringing  us  to  the  faith 
that  acts  as  '  seeing  Him  who  is  invisible.'  This  is  a 
separate  transaction  between  every  soul  and  God ;  and 
words  and  symbols  are  the  intermediate  means  of 
carrying  on  the  negotiation.  Training  is  not  the  thing ; 
civilisation  is  not  the  thing;  a  priesthood  is  not  the 
thing ;  words  and  rites  are  a  dead  letter,  in  themselves 
considered ;  but  it  is  to  be  '  quickened  together  with 
Christ,'  in  the  sense  of  having  our  lost  spiritual  connec- 
tion with  God  and  His  throne  re-established  within.1 

This  sensible  connection  with  God,  as  the  only 
perfection  for  human  nature,  is  the  thought  with  which 
the  Bible  begins,  and  it  is  that  with  which  it  ends. 
The  divine  inbreathing  opened  heaven  to  the  first 
man ;  he  talked  with  God ;  and  with  the  clear  vision 
of  a  seer  he  no  doubt  *  saw  the  Lord  sitting  upon  His 
throne,  and  all  the  host  of  heaven  standing  by  Him  on 
the  right  hand  and  on  the  left,'  his  purity  of  heart 
fitting  him  for  such  a  vision ;  and  he  lived  the  life 
of  heaven  here  below.2  But  when  he  fell  under  the 
ruling  of  fleshly  impulses  and  natural  ideas,  all  this 
was  lost ;  and  God,  even  to  those  who  are  restored  to 
Him,  is  seen  not  by  a  vision,  but  by  faith.  '  The  just 
shall  live  by  faith;'  and  'believing,  we  rejoice  with 
joy  unspeakable  and  full  of  glory.'3  Faith  with  us 
takes  the  place  of  vision  with  Adam  and  the  inspired 
prophets,  in  giving  reality  to  the  spiritual  world.  It 

1  Eph.  ii.  5  ;  Col.  ii.  13  ;  Matt.  vi.  10. 

2  Gen.  ii.  19,  20  ;  Matt.  v.  8  ;  1  Kings  xxii.  19. 

3  Matt.  xi.  27  ;  Heb.  xi.  27  ;  1  Pet.  i.  8  ;  Hab.  ii.  4 ;  Heb.  x.  38  ; 
Gal.  iii.  11 ;  Rom.  i.  17. 


i  g  2  Seed-  Truths. 

is  as  if  lightning  and  thunder  had  at  first  made 
electricity  visible  to  men,  but  afterwards  ceased ;  so 
that  though  now,  as  ever,  animal  and  vegetable  life 
is  pervaded  by  this  fluid,  and  subsists  by  means  of  it, 
yet  it  can  only  reveal  itself  to  our  faith  from  an 
electric  battery,  and  not,  as  formerly,  by  flashes  to  the 
eyes  and  intonations  to  the  ears.  To  do  this,  the 
battery  must  be  more  than  mechanism ;  it  must  be 
charged  with  a  power  wholly  unlike  itself,  of  which  it 
must  act  as  the  medium  to  our  nerves  and  muscles. 
Electricity  gives  us  the  shock,  not  the  battery;  and 
that  shock  becomes  the  basis  of  our  faith  in  what  we 
have  not  seen.  So  of  words  and  symbols;  unless 
charged  with  a  spiritual  power  totally  distinct  from 
themselves,  they  can  produce  no  faith,  and  no  salva- 
tion. Is  not  faith  the  gift  of  God  I1 

Words  and  symbols,  then,  are  the  battery,  but  spirit 
is  the  power.  We  must  be  in  some  way  assured  that 
God  is  speaking  to  us,  and  that  the  spiritual  world  is 
no  delusion.  Preaching  and  ceremonials  unattended 
by  this  cannot  be  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation. 
The  process  is  not  one  of  education,  but  of  regenera- 
tion ;  not  a  development  of  what  was  before  in  us,  but 
a  '  creation  in  the  image  of  Him  that  created  him ; ' 
and  it  is  the  work  not  of  the  Adam  who  was  '  a  living 
soul,'  but  of  the  Adam  who  is  a  '  quickening  spirit.' 
All  these  truths  of  the  divine  word  concur  in  this, 
that  though  God's  dominion  over  us  is  re-established, 
it  is  different  from  the  old,  in  being  one  of  faith  rather 
than  of  open  vision.2 

Can  we  wonder,  therefore,  that  a  Book  of  such  aims 
should  deal  largely  in  the  supernatural  ?  Whether  its 

»  Eph.  ii.  8. 

»  Matt.  xix.  28;  Tit.  iii.  6;  Col.  iii.  10;  John  iii.  3;  1  Cor.  xv.  45-48, 


Words  and  Symbols  in  Power.          193 

miracles  are  true  or  false  is  not  the  point  for  us  to 
consider  in  these  pages ;  but  whether,  admitting  that 
there  is  a  spiritual  world,  to  which  our  minds  had  been 
closed,  it  can  be  reopened  to  us,  except  by  means  which 
are  out  of  the  order  of  nature  ?  As  our  minds  had 
been  dominated  by  things  in  that  order,  to  the  extent 
of  losing  the  consciousness  of  anything  beyond,  how 
can  what  is  beyond  be  opened  to  us  otherwise  than  by 
miracle  ?  If  the  miracles  of  the  Bible  fail  us,  we  must 
look  for  them  elsewhere,  to  put  us  into  communication 
with  a  higher  world.  The  supernatural  claims  of  the 
Bible  are  what  most  of  all  fit  it  to  our  necessities.  Signs 
and  wonders  attested  the  mission  of  Moses,  of  our  Lord, 
and  of  all  the  prophets.  God  maintained  His  position 
on  the  mercy-seat  of  the  temple,  giving  responses  to 
the  people  out  of  the  order  of  nature,  so  long  as  its 
ritual  retained  its  efficacy.  The  Holy  Spirit  is  repre- 
sented as  the  sole  efficiency  in  the  Christian  church, 
in  reference  to  which  our  Lord  says,  '  Without  me  ye 
can  do  nothing/  and,  '  Lo,  I  am  with  you  always,  even 
unto  the  end  of  the  world.'1 

It  is  a  favourite  idea  with  some,  that  miracles  are 
of  no  force  except  in  an  age  of  infancy  and  credulity. 
They  ask,  What  effect  would  miracles  have  among  a 
scientific  people,  who  can  do  things  with  their  sciences 
which  would  have  been  regarded  in  the  ignorant  Bible 
generations  as  even  more  wonderful  than  anything 
done  by  the  prophets  ?  '  WE  depend  upon  logic  and 
an  induction  of  facts,  not  upon  magic  and  necromancy.' 
With  how  good  a  grace  such  a  boast  comes  from  an 
age  in  which  spirit-rappings  and  Joe  Smith's  revela- 
tions have  obtained  such  foothold,  let  truth  arid  can- 

1  Ex.  iv.  8,  17,  xxv.  22;  Deut.  xviii.  21,  22;  Acts  ii.  19;  Johnxv.  5: 
Matt,  xxviii.  20. 


1 94  Seed-  Truths. 

dour  determine.  Does  this  look  like  the  emancipation 
of  the  human  mind  from  the  influence  of  miracles? 
The  truth  is,  men  have  a  natural  aptitude  for  such 
manifestations ;  and  when  cut  off  from  the  true  spiritual 
universe,  is  it  wonderful  that  they  should  betake  them- 
selves to  lying  miracles  ?  They  may  be  harder  to  con- 
vince of  those  recorded  in  the  Bible  than  some  former 
generations,  but  in  reference  to  all  others  they  are 
sufficiently  gullible. 

The  truths  and  events  of  the  Bible  are  claimed  to 
be  by  supernatural  attestation,  as  much  as  English 
history  claims  to  be  a  record  of  the  English  people. 
Beings  not  embodied  in  flesh  are  the  principal  actors, 
speakers,  and  dictators  from  beginning  to  end.  We 
can  hardly  read  a  page  without  having  our  thoughts 
directed  to  something  not  in  the  order  of  nature.  This 
is  a  necessity  of  the  case ;  for  how  can  spirits  other- 
wise reveal  themselves  to  our  consciousness  ?  If  the 
burning  bush  had  not  been  a  '  great  sight,'  and  out  of 
the  order  of  Moses'  previous  experiences,  how  should 
he  have  turned  aside  to  inquire  into  it  ?  And  the  voice 
speaking  to  him  out  of  the  bush,  calling  him  by  name, 
and  entrusting  with  him  a  great  commission,  assured 
him  of  the  miracle,  and  that  he  stood  on  holy  ground, 
and  in  direct  communication  with  the  God  of  Abraham, 
of  Isaac,  and  of  Jacob.  A  like  attestation  was  given 
to  Jacob  when  he  said,  '  The  Lord  is  in  this  place,  and 
I  knew  it  not.'1 

But  it  may  be  said,  If  miracles  were  ever  necessary, 
why  not  now  ?  Why  do  not  heavenly  beings  thus 
manifest  themselves  in  all  ages,  and  to  all  men  ?  Be- 
cause they  would  then  become  ordinary  events,  and 
would  lose  the  effect  of  miracles.  A  single  sunrise 

1  Ex.  iii.  2-6  ;  Gen.  xxviii.  10. 


Words  and  Symbols  in  Power.          195 

occurring  out  of  the  order  of  nature  once  in  thousands 
of  years  would  be  the  greatest  of  all  supernatural  mani- 
festations ;  but  coming  as  it  does  every  morning,  it 
makes  little  impression.  Besides,  miracles  no  more 
contain  in  themselves  the  power  to  make  us  spiritual 
men,  than  words  and  symbols.  They  are  a  part  of  the 
battery  through  which  the  requisite  power  reaches  us. 
They  are  not  educators,  but  confirmations  of  the  truth, 
by  means  of  which  the  Holy  Spirit  calls  us  from  our 
death  in  flesh  to  spiritual  life  in  God.  If  God  had 
come  down  upon  Sinai  in  the  wonderful  manner 
described,  in  the  midst  of  thunder,  and  lightning,  and 
tempest,  and  yet  no  law  had  been  given,  and  no  truths 
affirmed  thereby,  what  more  would  it  have  bee*n  than 
the  passing  wonder  of  a  day  ?  Men  would  Have  gazed, 
and  wondered,  and  perished.1  The  seemingly  super- 
natural manifestations  of  modern  spiritualism  call  atten- 
tion from  wondering  crowds  ;  but  having  no  great  truths 
of  faith  and  duty  to  enforce,  they  fail  of  the  required 
effect.  Nobody  is  made  truly  spiritual  and  holy  by  their 
means.  But  the  miracles  of  Moses  established  a  polity 
which  lasted  fifteen  hundred  years,  and  exerted  a  wide- 
spread influence  upon  the  affairs  of  mankind.  The 
Jews  exist  to  this  day  as  a  monument  of  its  moulding 
power ;  while  Christianity,  as  the  realization  of  its 
highest  ideal,  is  at  the  head  of  our  civilising  agencies. 
If  miracles  contained  in  the'mselves  the  power  to  raise 
men  to  a  heavenly  life,  then  they  would  be  alike  neces- 
sary to  all.  Our  Lord  recognises  the  difference  between 
them  and  the  truths  they  confirm,  in  the  saying,  '  They 
have  Moses  and  the  prophets,  let  them  hear  them ;' 
and,  '  If  they  will  not  hear  them,  neither  will  they  be 
persuaded  though  one  rose  from  the  dead.'2  Those 

1  Ex.  xix.  16  ;  Heb.  xii.  18-21.  2  Luke  xvi.  29-31. 


196  Seed-  Truths. 

whom  truths  fail  to  reclaim  are  in  no  state  to  be  bene- 
fited by  miracles. 

The  Old  Testament  is  throughout  a  miracle.  As 
one  has  said,  '  its  prophecies  are  so  numerous,  and  so 
closely  connected  together,  that  one  might  regard  the 
Old  Testament,  considered  as  a  whole,  as  forming  one 
great  prophecy.  As  soon  as  sin  had  entered  into  the 
world,  it  announces,  under  the  name  of  "  the  Seed  of 
the  woman,"  a  Restorer  who  will  destroy  the  work  of 
the  tempter,  and  raise  fallen  man.  From  this  passage, 
which  is  found  in  the  third  page  of  the  book,  the  Old 
Testament  is  but,  as  it  were,  a  pre-existing  history  of 
the  Restorer,  and  of  a  certain  kingdom  which  He  will 
found  on  earth.  The  country  and  people  of  the  Messiah 
are  already  indicated  in  the  twelfth  chapter  of  Genesis. 
He  was  to  be  born  of  the  seed  of  Abraham,  in  the  land 
of  Canaan,  which  God  gave  to  Abraham  for  this  very 
purpose.  It  was  this  well-known  promise  which  led 
Abraham  to  Palestine ;  which  brought  back  his  descen- 
dants after  an  exile  of  four  hundred  years ;  in  short, 
which  formed  the  Jewish  nation.  It  is  this  which  leads 
Pascal  to  say,  that  "  there  is  a  great  difference  between 
a  book  made  by  a  private  individual  and  sent  forth 
among  a  nation,  and  one  which  makes  a  nation  itself." 
.  .  .  Take  from  the  Jewish  history  the  promise  of  a 
Messiah,  and  you  annihilate  it.  You  can  no  longer  ac- 
count for  the  origin,  nor  the  religion,  nor  the  manners  of 
this  singular  people,  whose  distinctive  characteristic  has 
always  been,  and  still  is,  the  expectation  of  a  Messiah. 

'  After  the  call  of  Abraham  you  may  trace  the  course 
of  prophecy  throughout  the  whole  of  the  Old  Testament. 
You  will  see  it  unfold  and  display  itself  from  age  to 
age,  from  prophet  to  prophet,  during  an  interval  of  two 
thousand  years,  till  at  length  it  is  accomplished  in 


Words  and  Symbols  in  Power.          197 

Jesus  Christ,  whose  name  signifies  Jesus-Messiah.  Each 
prophet  in  his  turn  seems  only  to  have  been  sent  to 
bear  witness  of  Him,  and  to  add  his  link  to  the  chain 
of  narrative,  in  which  we  find  clearly  indicated  the 
people  descended  from  Abraham,  the  tribe  of  that 
people,  the  family  of  that  tribe, — the  time,  the  place, 
in  which  the  Messiah  should  appear,  with  all  that  He 
would  do,  and  all  that  would  be  done  to  Him.  Hence 
this  profound  expression  in  the  Apocalypse,  "  The  testi- 
mony of  Jesus  is  the  spirit  of  prophecy."1  Besides  all 
these  prophecies,  or  rather  this  perpetual  prophecy,  tho 
Old  Testament  contains  a  succession  of  facts  and  insti- 
tutions which  bear  reference  to  the  Messiah  and  to  His 
work.  I  allude  especially  to  those  sacrifices  which 
prefigured  a  sacrifice  to  come,  and  to  which,  according 
to  Daniel,  the  Messiah  would  put  an  end.2  And,  won- 
derful to  relate,  Jesus  Christ  did  indeed  put  an  end 
to  them.  They  were  constantly  offered  till  His  appear- 
ance, but  ceased  almost  immediately  after  His  death ; 
yet  the  Jews  have  the  same  reason  for  offering  them 
now  which  they  had  before  the  Christian  era,  since 
they  are  still  in  expectation  of  the  Saviour  for  whom 
their  fathers  waited.'3 

A  well-attested  miracle,  as  evidence  of  a  power 
superior  to  nature,  is  the  same  to  those  who  do  not 
witness  it  as  to  those  who  do,  the  same  to  every  other 
age  as  to  the  one  in  which  it  occurred,  provided  the 
proof  of  its  existence  is  well  authenticated.  But  in 
the  case  before  us  there  is  an  unbroken  series  of 
proofs  from  Adam  to  this  day,  if  the  present  condition 
of  the  Jews  be  regarded.  For  if  the  miracles  them- 
selves be  not  repeated  as  specific  signs  and  wonders, 

1  Rev.  xix.  10.  2  Dan.  viii.  11,  xi.  31,  xii.  11. 

3  Lucilla,  by  Adolph  Monod,  pp.  49-51. 


198  Seed-Truths. 

what  but  the  veritable  record  of  their  existence,  as  -we 
find  it  in  the  Bible,  can  account  for  the  oneness  of  idea 
among  that  peculiar  people  in  their  eighteen  hundred 
years'  dispersion  among  all  the  nations  of  the  earth, — 
an  idea  still  so  potent  among  them,  as  to  keep  them 
distinct  from  those  among  whom  they  have  so  long 
lived  ?  And  when  we  add  to  this  the  influence  of 
Christian  truths  of  a  Jewish  origin,  or  as  a  fulfilment 
of  the  Old  Testament  rites  and  prophecies,  in  mould- 
ing the  present  civilisation  of  Europe,  or  as  the  source 
of  its  best  ideas  in  religion,  morals,  civil  and  common 
law,  personal  freedom,  institutional  charity,  and  public 
education, — an  influence  which  no  one  can  deny  ; — 
when  all  these  things  are  considered,  I  say,  the  miracles 
of  the  Bible  become  as  great  a  reality  to  us  as  to  those 
who  witnessed  them.  Indeed,  they  are  even  more 
potential,  just  as  the  life  of  Christ,  as  expatiated  on 
by  the  apostles,  made  many  more  converts  among 
those  who  had  never  seen  Him,  than  were  made  by 
His  personal  presence  among  the  witnesses  of  His  ex- 
traordinary power  in  word  and  deed.  Quite  another 
process  is  necessary  to  make  us  spiritual  men  than  the 
surprise  and  commotion  of  seeing  a  miracle.  It  is  a 
process  by  which  our  faith  is  secured  to  the  truths 
affirmed  by  miracle,  and  our  hearts  are  won  to  a 
spiritual  and  heavenly  life. 

God's  ordinary  working  in  the  temple  of  old,  and  at 
present  in  the  Christian  ministry,  though  supernatural, 
is  not,  strictly  speaking,  miraculous  ;  for  the  good 
reason  that  it  is  ordinary,  and  follows  a  fixed  connec- 
tion of  cause  and  effect.  '  How  shall  they  call  on 
Him  in  whom  tljey  have  not  believed  ?  and  how  shall 
they  believe  in  Him  of  whom  they  have  not  hoard  ? 
and  how  shall  they  hear  without  a  preacher  ?  and  how 


Words  and  Symbols  in  Power.          199 

shall  they  preach,  except  they  be  sent  ? ' 3  These 
questions  reveal  an  order  beginning  in  miracle,  and 
sustained  by  influences  above  nature,  though  quite  in 
another  line  from  the  signs  and  wonders  of  inspired 
men.  So,  God's  daily  responses  from  the  mercy-seat, 
in  administering  the  theocracy  of  old,  were  according 
to  a  fixed  arrangement  like  the  order  of  nature,  though 
of  a  character  to  keep  before  the  minds  of  the  people 
a  power  above  nature,  and  of  a  continual  efflux  from 
the  spiritual  world.  It  is  so  under  the  ministry  of  the 
word :  when  it  is  in  power,  we  feel  that  God  is  speak- 
ing to  us,  and  eternal  realities  open  upon  us  with 
extraordinary  clearness  and  pungency. 

It  is  proper  to  add  a  remark  as  to  the  particular 
rites  selected,  and  the  particular  miracles  wrought  in 
attestation  of  them.  How  often  are  these  things 
thought  or  spoken  of  as  puerile,  and  unworthy  of 
God !  '  Suppose  a  man  were  to  do  the  same  things 
now-a-days,  what  would  be  thought  of  him  ?  If  it 
were  known  that  he  was  desolating  a  country  or 
drowning  a  whole  army,  the  innocent  with  the  guilty, 
would  he  not  be  remonstrated  with  by  every  humane 
society  in  the  world  ?  Why  kill  a  whole  herd  of 
defenceless  swine  in  recovering  a  lunatic  to  sanity  ? 
Would  not  the  Society  for  Preventing  Cruelty  to 
Animals  immediately  take  it  up  V  Though  it  is  not  our 
mission  to  apologize  for  God,  or  explain  the  motives 
of  His  conduct,  we  cannot  shut  our  eyes  to  the  fact 
that  rites  and  miracles,  though  having  one  object  in 
all  ages — re-establishing  God's  spiritual  authority  over 
man — yet  were  of  a  character  suited  to  the  particular 
people  for  whom  they  were  designed.  The  ceremonies 
sanctioned  on  Sinai,  though  different  in  their  combina- 

1  Rom.  x.  14,  15. 


2OO  Seed-Truths. 

• 

tions  and  uses  from  all  others,  were  made  of  things 
with  which  the  people  were  familiar,  such  as  a  reli- 
gious house  with  its  adytum,  altars,  sacrifices,  priestly 
orders  and  ceremonies,  incense,  intercession,  and  the 
whole  paraphernalia  of  the  tabernacle  worship.  The 
demand  of  Moses  for  a  three  days'  journey  into  the 
wilderness,  to  do  sacrifice  with  his  people,  was  an  idea 
familiar  to  Pharaoh  and  his  court,  in  reference  to  the 
surrounding  tribes,  who  worshipped  different  gods,  and 
in  their  own  chosen  sacred  places.  The  nomadic  life 
of  Israel  in  Arabia  for  forty  years  was  an  idea 
familiar  to  that  country,  and  is  so  to  this  day.  The 
plagues  of  Egypt  were  suited  to  impress  a  Nile-wor- 
shipping, agricultural-loving  country ;  and  the  escape 
of  Israel  through  the  Red  Sea,  and  the  returning  tide 
to  overwhelm  their  pursuing  enemies,  were  best  of  all 
fitted  to  make  the  Egyptians  and  surrounding  peoples 
feel  that  there  was  no  God  but  Jehovah,  and  to 
'  declare  His  name  in  all  the  earth.' *  What  can  be 
conceived  more  impressive  than  the  scenes  of  Sinai, 
occurring  as  they  did  among  the  most  jagged  peaks 
and  broken  ledges  in  all  the  world,  and  in  the  view  of 
a  people  from  the  Nile  valley  who  had  hardly  seen  a 
mountain  before  in  all  their  lives  ? 

Whether  such  rites  and  miracles  are  best  adapted 
to  us  is  not  the  question ;  but  whether  they  were  not 
most  effective  in  that  and  subsequent  ages  under  the 
theocracy,  to  impress  upon  a  fleshly  and  brutalized 
race  the  idea  of  an  Infinite  Intelligence  dwelling  in 
a  spiritual  universe,  whose  laws  and  operations  are 
entirely  apart  from  and  above  anything  in  this  earthly 
world.  The  only  question  of  interest  to  us  is,  whether 
they  are  well -attested  manifestations  from  such  a 
1  Ex.  ix.  14-16  ;  Rom.  ix.  17. 


Words  and  Symbols  in  Power.          201 

Being  and  such  a  universe  ?  I  maintain  that  we 
have  the  means  of  settling  this  question,  which  no 
Jew  under  the  theocracy  ever  had,  unless  he  was 
divinely  inspired.  We  have  the  accumulated  evidence 
of  thousands  of  years,  and  can  well  afford  to  say  with 
Peter,  that  we  have  followed  no  cunningly-devised 
fables  in  giving  our  faith  to  divine  revelation,  but 
have  been  witnesses  of  its  majesty  in  the  later  events 
of  the  world.1  Though  the  words  and  symbols  adopted 
in  embodying  celestial  truths  are  an  appropriation  of 
things  previously  known  and  in  use,  as  they  must  be 
to  graft  them  upon  human  nature,  we  see  in  them 
something  higher,  holier,  and  more  divine.  No  people 
can  greatly  anticipate  the  ages  before  them ;  and  one 
of  the  greatest  evidences  of  divine  inspiration  is,  that 
it  blends  in  with  the  current  of  human  thought  and 
language,  as  a  river  shapes  its  course  by  the  features 
of  the  land  through  which  it  flows,  and  not  by  the 
topography  of  an  imaginary  or  an  unknown  country. 
Moses  not  only  sprinkled  with  blood  the  people  and 
all  the  utensils  of  divine  service,  but  the  book  of  the 
law ;  not  because  the  law  needed  purifying,  but  the 
language  in  which  it  was  recorded  had  been  so  exclu- 
sively devoted  to  worldly  and  material  ideas,  that, 
without  being  purified  or  adapted  to  its  new  use,  it 
could  not  be  the  vehicle  of  truths  so  spiritual  and 
holy.  A  new  language  was  not  created,  but  one 
already  spoken  and  understood  received  a  new  and 
heavenly  deposit  of  ideas  and  meanings.2 

This  is  the  policy  throughout — the  use  of  common 

things  for  sacred  purposes.     The  Christian  church  is 

modelled  on  like  principles.     It  is  not  a  society  of 

angels  living  on  earth,  but  a  purely  human  institution, 

1  2  Pet.  i.  16.  2  JIfcb.  ix.  9. 


2O2  Seed-Truths. 

conforming  in  its  order,  ordinances,  ministrations,  and 
discipline  very  much  to  the  synagogue  worship  of 
previous  ages,  and  its  social  surroundings  in  the 
ancient  Eoman  world.  The  point  was  to  open  heaven 
to  a  materialized  race,  and  not  to  organize  a  great 
worldly  power  like  Judaism  or  the  Papacy,  and  to  do 
it  with  as  little  interference  with  the  political  ideas 
and  social  order  of  the  people  as  consisted  with  the 
accomplishment  of  its  main  purpose.  Spiritual  wor- 
shippers were  the  object  of  pursuit,  not  monarchists 
nor  republicans,  not  the  social  forms  of  Judaism  nor 
those  of  heathenism.  Not  only  Jerusalem  and  Gerizim 
lost  their  position  as  the  necessary  seats  of  acceptable 
worship,  but  the  whole  paraphernalia  of  priestly  robes, 
orders,  sacrifices,  and  ceremonials  lost  their  significance, 
or  became  the  expression  of  heavenly  truths.  They 
passed  into  spiritual  meanings,  or  words  in  power.1 
Power, — power  to  open  a  closed  heaven  to  a  race 
imprisoned  in  worldly  ideas  and  carnal  lusts, — this  is 
the  mission  of  revealed  religion ;  this  alone  gives 
value  to  its  words  and  symbols. 

1  John  iv.  23  ;  Heb.  viii.  1-1* 


CHAPTEE    XVIII. 

LAW  THE  BASIS  OF  GOD'S  RULE  IN  THE  SOUL. 

WHAT  law  or  religion  is  it  that  God  uses  the 
power  of  miracles,  of  inspiration,  and  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  to  establish  among  men  ?  Let  the  reader 
earnestly  and  prayerfully  follow  us  in  our  inquiries  on 
this  subject.  Is  what  you  realize  of  heavenly  life  in 
yourself,  or  in  the  ecclesiastical  order  to  which  you  are 
attached,  the  thing  which  God  employed  so  many  ages 
of  supernatural  manifestation  to  establish  ?  Is  it  the 
Papacy,  with  its  vast  worldly  appliances  ?  Is  it  any 
existing  organization,  religious  or  civil  ?  Is  it  our 
modern  civilisation,  with  all  its  pretensions  ?  Alas 
that  so  many  should  look  outward  for  '  a  kingdom  that 
cometh  not  with  observation  I'1  So  absorbed  are  they 
in  material  ideas,  that  the  real  domain  of  humanity, 
which  needs  to  be  reconquered  to  God  and  occupied  by 
the  Holy  Spirit,  is  lost  sight  of.  The  province  from 
whence  alone  must  come  the  civilisation  which  is  of 
lasting  value  to  the  world — the  soul-province  in  its 
relation  to  spirit — is  put  last,  as  a  thing  to  be  reached 
by  education,  science,  social  culture,  or  that  hollow- 
hearted  thing  which  we  call  refinement.  These  absurd 
ideas  are  in  many  cases  fostered  by  mistaken  views 
of  the  ceremonial  law  established  at  Sinai,  as  if  that 
demanded  a  great  worldly  realization  in  some  form, 

1  Luke  xvii.  2(^ 
203 


2O4  Seed-  Truths. 

either  of  creed,  organization,  ritualistic  show,  or  of 
Church  and  State  administration,  when  the  apostle 
expressly  teaches  that  'God  found  fault'  with  that 
order  of  things ;  that  it  'made  nothing  perfect,'  but  was 
merely  'the  bringing  in  of  a  better  hope;'  and  that  it 
was  a  dead  failure  as  a  means  of  making  men  just  and 
righteous  before  God.1  And  yet  what  are  our  great 
ecclesiastical  organizations,  but  attempts  to  galvanize 
into  life  this  ritualistic  carcase  ? 

The  law  of  God  in  Scripture  is,  directly  or  repre- 
sentatively, a  spiritual  force  acting  in  the  domain  of 
the  soul,  to  regulate  its  faculties,  or  to  bring  its  inward 
life  into  harmony  with  God,  and  from  that  vantage- 
ground  to  extend  the  kingdom  of  heaven  over  all  the 
outward  affairs  of  this  world.  It  is  therefore  by  its 
very  nature  individual,  and  not  organic  or  corporate, 
except  as  it  affects  communities,  nations,  and  govern- 
ments, by  improving  the  spiritual  character  of  the  in- 
dividuals composing  them.2  The  spiritual  universe 
where  God  is  enthroned,  but  to  which  men  are  to  a 
great  extent  dead,  is  infinitely  greater  than  the  natural  ; 
and  the  divine  law  is  given  to  restore  their  conscious- 
ness of  it,  and  re-enthrone  God  in  His  dominion  within 
them.  It  is  that  heaven  may  rule  them,  not  earth. 
This  is  the  cardinal  idea  of  the  divine  law.  Love  is 
the  sum  of  the  law,  a  spiritual  and  not  a  natural  affec- 
tion, as  is  shown  both  by  Moses  and  by  our  Lord.  On 
this  hang  all  the  law  and  the  prophets.3 

The  law  is  a  force,  not  an  ideal  to  be  lived  up  to,  as 
a  philosophic  sect  make  it  a  point  of  conforming  to  cer- 

1  Heb.  vii.  19,  viii.  8;  Rora.  iii.  20;  Gal.  ii.  16  ;  Heb.  ix.  9,  xi.  40. 
1  In  what  sense   it  works  itself  out  organically  in   '  the  body  of 
Christ'  will  1.    Ml  ii  lion-nftiT. 
3  I>cut.  vi.  i>  ;  Malt.  \ii.  iJ,  x\ii.  37-39. 


Law  the  Basis  of  GocCs  Rule  in  the  Soul.    205 

tain  rules.  To  one  who  obeys  the  law,  God  is  a  power 
everywhere  present,  everywhere  supreme,  as  air  is 
everywhere  and  always  alike  necessary  as  a  life-force. 
We  live,  move,  and  breathe  in  God;  and  there  can  be  no 
moral  law  which  has  not  the  sense  of  God,  or  the  exer- 
cise of  supreme  love  to  Him,  for  its  basis.  Where 
that  is  wanting,  the  god  of  this  world  is  the  ruling 
and  legislating  divinity  in  the  formation  of  laws  and 
institutions.  Selfishness  in  such  a  state  of  things  is 
the  sole  basis  of  individual  action  and  of  social  order. 
Is  not  this  clear  from  the  policy  of  governments,  and 
from  the  whole  life  of  man  upon  earth  ?  There  is  no 
repose,  but  all  is  'like  the  troubled  sea  which  cannot 
rest,  but  casteth  up  mire  and  dirt ;'  and  to  men  in  this 
state  it  is  that  our  Lord  addresses  the  invitation,  'Come 
unto  me ' — me,  the  law  of  God  personified  ;  '  take  my 
yoke  upon  you' — my  law  of  love:  'for  my  yoke  is 
easy,  and  my  burden  is  light ;  and  ye  shall  find  rest 
unto  your  souls.'1  What  a  comment  upon  the  law 
as  an  inward  force !  Is  not  such  a  law  entitled  to 
all  the  miracles  of  the  Bible,  to  re-establish  it  among 
men? 

We  are  so  prone  to  conceive  of  spiritual  force  as  an 
axiom  of  reason,  or  as  a  thing  to  be  defined  and  measured 
by  outward  rules,  that  we  fail  in  our  treatment  of  this 
subject  of  law.  Can  we  define  seeing  to  a  blind  man, 
or  poetical  inspiration  to  one  who  has  no  poetry  in  him? 
The  family  ties,  true  patriotism,  and  indeed  the  greatest 
forces  acting  in  real  life,  are  just  as  liable  to  be  mis- 
taken as  the  divine  law,  provided  our  knowledge  of 
them  were  to  depend  upon  a  definition  or  an  axiom  of 
the  reason.  To  love  God  with  all  the  heart  seems  to 
the  intellectual  sceptic  an  utter  impossibility.  And  it 

1  Isa.  Ivii.  20  j  Malt.  xi.  30,  31. 


206  Seed-Truths. 

would  be  so,  if  God  had  not  provided  the  grace  to  fulfil 
the  law  in  them  who  walk  after  the  Spirit,  or  who  have 
an  inward  fitness  to  understand  and  practise  it  in  its 
true  meaning  and  interest.1  The  infinite  intelligence 
revealed  to  the  human  intelligence  by  reasoning  from 
effect  to  cause,  till  we  had  reached  the  First  Cause,  is 
as  far  removed  from  the  process  by  which  we  receive 
and  walk  in  the  light  of  God's  law,  as  dealing  with 
fox-fire  is  from  basking  in  the  sunbeams.  No  man  can 
know  the  Father,  but  he  to  whom  the  Son  shall  reveal 
Him.  We  learn  from  Him  to  say,  Abba,  Father,  as 
we  first  learned  the  lesson  from  our  parents,  by  an 
affectional  and  not  by  an  intellectual  process.2  The 
divine  law  is  a  power  from  God  to  order  our  lives  by, 
on  the  one  hand,  as  on  the  other  we  order  them  by  the 
objects  of  sense. 

The  spiritual  men  in  Israel  of  old  give  abundant 
evidence  of  accepting  their  law  in  a  similar  sense,  as 
may  be  seen  from  their  devotional  language  :  '  Thy  law 
is  within  my  heart ;'  '  Grant  me  Thy  law  graciously/  or, 
Let  me  feel  its  power  in  my  soul ;  '  Thy  law  I  love ;' 
'  Thy  law  is  my  delight ;'  'His  delight  is  in  the  law  of 
the  Lord ;'  and  many  like  passages,  for  which  no  out- 
ward rites  can  account,  except  as  the  representative  of 
an  inward  power.3  The  prophets  are  equally  explicit, 
speaking  of  '  the  law  as  in  the  heart/  as  'in  the  inward 
parts,  and  written  upon  the  heart/  '  Forsaking  the  law ' 
with  them  meant  more  than  a  neglect  of  ceremonials ; 
for  even  '  the  multitude  of  sacrifices '  were  alike  com- 
plained of  when  not  performed  in  a  right  spirit.4  'The 
fire  of  God's  law'  refers  not  so  much  to  the  lightning  of 

1  Rom.  viiL  1.  *  Rom.  viii.  15  ;  John  i.  18. 

»  I's.  i.  2,  xl.  8,  cxix.  29,  113,  174. 

«  Jer.  xxxi.  33,  ix.  13,  xvi.  11  ;  l>u.  L  11-15. 


Law  the  Btisis  of  God's  Rule  in  the  Soul.   207 

Sinai,  as  to  the  inward  warmth  of  which  the  Psalmist 
speaks :  '  My  heart  was  hot  within  me ;  while  I  was 
musing,  the  fire  burned/1  A  law  producing  this  divine 
heat  in  the  soul  is  fitly  called  '  fiery.'  If  it  was  so  in 
a  dispensation  of  ceremonies,  what  must  it  have  been 
when  it  became  '  the  law  of  the  spirit  of  life  in  Christ 
Jesus?'  Then  it  was  accepted  as  a  heart-force,  and 
malice  was  murder,  lust  adultery ;  and  '  the  law'  was 
felt  to  '  be  spiritual/  and  antagonistic  to  a  life  *  carnal, 
c-old  under  sin/  Then  the  righteousness  of  the  scribes 
and  Pharisees,  as  merely  outward,  lost  its  value ;  and 
'the  righteousness  of  the  law  was  fulfilled  only  in  those 
who  walked  not  after  the  flesh,  but  after  the  Spirit/2 
Not  that  the  divine  code  had  itself  changed,  for  it  was 
the  same  to  Adam,  to  Abraham,  and  to  Moses  as  to  us; 
but  only  that  the  human  mind  was  in  different  states 
of  receptivity  or  of  spiritual  discernment. 

This  idea  of  the  law  as  a  spiritual  force  proceeding 
from  God,  is  contained  in  the  Hebrew  word  by  which 
it  is  expressed.  That  word  is  torah,  of  which  nomos  is 
the  synonym  in  the  New  Testament ;  both  words  being 
used  about  five  hundred  times.  The  Greek  word  nomos 
has  not  with  the  apostles  the  same  sense  as  in  classical 
usage,  but  is  determined  by  the  meaning  of  torah,  the 
general  word  for  law  in  Hebrew.  A  word  charged  with 
so  much  of  God's  truth  to  man,  should  be  prayerfully 
considered  in  'comparing  spiritual  things  with  spiritual;' 
and  in  doing  this,  natural  ideas  or  worldly  modes  of 
thought  must  be  as  far  as  possible  excluded.  It  is 
true  that,  as  a  word  of  law  or  sovereign  decree,  tm*ali 
is  applied  to  specific  enactments,  such  as  burnt-offer- 
ings, jealousy,  leprosy,  uncleanness  from  contact  with 

1  Deut.  xxxii.  22  ;  Ps.  xxxix.  3. 

8  Malt.  v.  22,  28  ;  Horn.  vii.  14,  viii.  2,  4  ;  Malt.  v.  20. 


2o8  Seed-  Truths. 

the  dead,  and  the  like ;  and  it  is  sometimes  used  for 
civil  laws  or  royal  decrees,  and  once  for  the  temper  of 
a  good  woman,  '  upon  whose  tongue  is  the  law  of  kind- 
ness.' l  But  these  various  applications  of  a  term  do  not 
weaken  or  invalidate  the  stem  thought  or  radical  truth, 
which  in  a  great  majority  of  cases  it  is  used  to  express, 
if  indeed  that  thought  is  ever  lost  sight  of.  Torali  is  a 
verbal  noun  formed  from  a  verb  which  means  to  run 
as  a  small  stream,  to  trickle  as  water  into  a  reservoir,  to 
flow,  to  inseminate,  to  lay  a  corner  or  foundation  stone; 
and  Jonathan  uses  .it  for  hurling  a  javelin.2  The  pre- 
vailing idea  is  action,  as  in  running  water,  depositing 
seed,  laying  a  stone,  hurling  a  javelin  ;  and  not  only  so, 
but  action  from  one  point  to  another,  or  from  one  hand 
to  another.  This  seems  to  have  suggested  the  idea  of 
mental  action  in  imparting  thought  from  one  mind  to 
another ;  and  hence,  as  in  this  process  the  teacher  and 
taught  concur  to  a  common  result,  the  same  word  is 
used  to  teach9  and  to  learn;  and  torah,  the  derived 
word,  means  doctrine,  erudition,  law,  instruction,  which 
is  an  insemination  of  truth,  or  the  shedding  of  thoughts 
into  the  mind  as  rain  upon  the  earth.4  It  includes  also 
the  idea  of  casting  the  mind  of  the  learner  into  the 
mould  of  the  teacher's  by  the  interaction  between  them, 
as  a  building  takes  form  from  the  design  in  the  archi- 
tect's mind.  This  is  the  cardinal  idea  of  inspired  law. 
It  is  an  impartation  from  God  to  us,  effected  by  con- 
current action  between  Him  and  us,  as  it  is  said,  'Draw 
me,  we  will  run  after  Thee ;'  '  No  man  can  come  unto 

1  Lev.  vii.  37,  xiii.  59;  Num.  v.  80,  xix.  14;  Ezra  vil  26; 
Kstl..  i.  9,  iii.  14;  Dan.  vi.  9,13,  15. 

»  1  Sam.  xx.  20,  36. 

1  Judg.  xiii.  8.  Manoah  entreated  that  the  angel  might  'teach*  him, 
or  impart  his  own  ideal  of  training  a  deliverer  for  Israel. 

«  L>eut.  xjtxii.  2  ;  I«a.  Iv.  10,  11  ;  1  Cor.  iii.  7-9  ;  Ps.  Ixxii.  2. 


Law  the  Basis  of  God's  Rule  in  the  Soul.  209 

me,  except  the  Father  who  sent  me  draw  him ;'  and 
many  are  the  prayers  in  which  God  is  desired  to  '  lead 
the  soul  in  His  righteousness/  '  in  His  truth/  '  in  a  plain 
path/  and  to  '  send  out  His  light  and  truth  to  guide' 
and  'lead  in  the  way  everlasting.'1  It  is  not  providen- 
tial drawing  and  leading  which  is  chiefly  contemplated 
in  these  passages,  but  a  drawing  to  the  true,  the  right, 
and  the  good,  in  obedience  to  the  holy  law. 

Nor  let  it  be  supposed  that  this  is  too  spiritual  a 
law  to  be  enforced  by  penalties.  As  in  nature  the 
greatest  forces  work  the  most  silently,  so  in  this  case 
the  greatest  power  acting  upon  man  as  a  moral  agent 
comes  from  his  relation  to  God  as  a  moral  governor ; 
and  to  violate  the  law  of  this  relation  entails  a  greater 
curse  than  to  violate  all  the  physical  laws  of  our  being. 
It  is  this  that  has  reduced  man  from  an  angel  to  a 
devil,  from  a  heavenly  to  a  bestial  life.  It  is  this 
voluntary  detachment  from  God  that  constitutes  the 
pains  of  the  second  death.  '  Depart,  ye  cursed,  into 
everlasting  fire,  prepared  for  the  devil  and  his  angels/ 
is  a  sentence  which  simply  affirms  our  own  determina- 
tion not  to  be  ruled  by  God's  law.  If  there  is  affinity 
between  two  trees  growing  near  each  other,  their 
branches  will  interlace  and  intertwine  into  one  globular 
top,  and  their  duality  can  only  be  seen  in  their  separate 
trunks.  But  if  there  is  antipathy,  as  between  a  maple 
and  a  cedar,  they  will  repel  each  other,  and  the  maple 
will  incline  the  other  way,  and  will  send  out  few  and 
feeble  branches  on  the  side  of  its  neighbour ;  and  thus, 
though  no  contact  ever  takes  place  between  them,  its 
top  will  become  mean  and  misshapen.  If  an  unseen 
influence  produces  such  effects  among  trees,  what  may 

1  Cant.  i.  4  ;  Jolm  vi.  44 ;  Ps.  v.  8,  xxv.  5,  xxxi.  3,  xliii.  3, 
cxxxix.  24. 

0 


2 1  o  Seed-  Truths. 

we  expect  from  a  soul  in  affinity  with,  or  antipathy  to, 
the  Spirit  of  God  ?  While  the  one  developes  beauti- 
fully, growing  as  it  were  into  God,  and  becoming  one 
spirit  with  Him,  the  other  becomes  deformed,  leafless, 
twice  dead,  and  plucked  up  by  the  roots.  No  contact, 
no  overt  act  on  the  part  of  God,  is  necessary  to  ensure 
this  damnatory  result.  The  one  '  is  like  a  tree  planted 
by  the  rivers  of  water,  that  bringeth  forth  his  fruit  in 
his  season ;  his  leaf  shall  not  wither  ;  and  whatsoever 
he  doeth  shall  prosper.  The  ungodly  are  not  so ;  but 
are  like  the  chaff  which  the  wind  driveth  away.' 1 
What  but  a  silent,  unseen  force  produces  the  agony  of 
a  convicted  conscience  ?  What  gives  a  sense  of  repose 
in  God,  but  feeling  that  in  Christ  we  have  accepted 
the  holy  law  as  our  rule  of  life  ?  Can  a  man  have 
this  repose  while  his  heart  rebels  against  any  divine 
precept  ?  Is  not  '  he  that  offends  in  one  point  guilty 
of  all  ? ' 3 

Not  a  little  is  done  to  kill  the  life  of  piety  by  mis- 
taken views  on  this  subject.  They  detach  law  from 
the  nature  on  which  it  acts,  or  from  the  personal  rela- 
tion between  God  and  the  soul,  and  conceive  of  it  as 
a  separate  power  in  God,  or  in  the  universe,  or  in  a 
sort  of  universal  conscience  of  how  things  ought  to  be, 
which,  demands  to  be  satisfied,  if  not  in  one  way,  then 
in  another.  And  they  are  more  concerned  to  be 
assured  that  this  universal  conscience  or  this  unde- 
finable  something  is  satisfied,  than  they  are  to  be 
personally  holy  before  God.  This  way  of  thinking 
comes  from  shaping  our  spiritual  ideas  to  things  as 
we  see  them  in  human  governments.  In  our  courts 
of  adjudication,  the  judge,  the  jury,  the  prisoner,  the 
witness,  the  advocate,  and  all  who  participate  in  the 
1  P«.  L  8,  4.  »  Jaa.  ii.  10. 


Law  the  Basis  of  God's  Ride  in  the  Soul.   2 1 1 

proceedings,  are  held  by  the  supreme  power  of  law,  aa 
written  in  the  statute  books,  to  conduct  the  trial,  to 
find  a  verdict,  and  to  punish  or  acquit,  according  to 
prescribed  principles,  which  the  court  has  no  more 
power  to  change  than  the  criminal  or  any  other 
person.  They  are,  in  a  certain  sense,  tools  which  law 
uses  to  carry  out  its  behests.  Whatever  their  private 
sympathies  for  the  poor  man  whom  they  doom  to 
death,  still  the  law  and  their  oath  compel  them  to 
execute  the  sentence.  So,  we  conceive  of  God  as  alike 
bound  by  a  law,  or  a  principle,  or  an  irresistible  moral 
force  of  some  sort,  to  punish  without  pity  those  who 
rise  up  against  His  government.  If  pity  caused  Him 
to  waver  in  the  least,  the  sceptre  would  fall  from 
His  hands,  and  the  secret  would  be  out  that  God 
countenanced  sin,  and  trampled  under  foot  His  own 
law.  By  this  view  law  is  made  a  Moloch,  to 
whose  honour  millions  must  burn  in  hell  for  ever,  or 
somebody  else  must  accept  the  entail  of  woe  on  their 
account. 

The  evil  of  this  view  comes  not  from  establishing 
the  certainty  of  a  sinner's  punishment, — for  that  is 
fixed  in  the  irreversible  laws  of  his  own  constitution, 
— but  in  foisting  into  a  spiritual  subject  natural  ideas, 
and  judging  of  it  by  our  human  affairs.  Dives  in  hell 
is  separated  by  an  impassable  gulf  from  Lazarus  in 
heaven,  it  is  true  ;  but  what  made  it  impassable  ? 
Was  it  that  God's  pity  for  the  poor  sufferer  was  over- 
ruled by  law  ?  Was  it  that  the  heart  of  Abraham  and 
Lazarus  was  steeled  towards  him  ?  Nothing  of  the 
sort  is  intimated.  But  he  had  lived  and  died  an  un- 
pitying  worldling  and  voluptuary,  without  one  feeling 
qualifying  him  to  share  in  the  happiness  of  heaven. 
Indeed,  heaven  would  have  been  worse  to  him  than 


212  Seed-  Truths. 

lielL1  Moses  and  the  law  had  been  lost  upon  him  in 
life,  as  they  were  likely  to  be  upon  his  worldly  brothers, 
failing  to  bring  him  to  the  divine  law  as  his  standard 
of  character ;  and  how  could  one  from  the  dead  do  it  ? 
or  how  could  the  scenes  of  eternity  make  that  law  any 
more  tolerable  to  him  ?  No,  the  impassable  gulf  was 
in  his  own  rebellion  of  heart  against  God — a  rebellion 
just  as  stubborn,  just  as  persistent,  in  hell  as  it  had 
been  in  his  marble  palace  and  robes  of  purple  and  fine 
linen  upon  earth.  It  is  in  reference  to  this  fixed  and 
irrevocable  nature  of  hostility  to  God  in  a  worldly 
mind,  this  incapacity  for  any  pleasure  which  is  not 
remote  from  holy  love  and  heavenly  life,  that  the 
apostle  calls  it  a  law,  a  '  law  of  sin  and  death,'  a  '  law 
in  the  members/  and  '  the  body  of  the  sins  of  the 
flesh/  which  must  be  wholly  '  put  off '  in  order  to 
that  harmony  with  God  which  the  holy  law  requires, 
but  which  it  has  no  power  to  bring  a  worldling  to 
accept.  It  was  '  weak  through  the  flesh/  or  from  the 
strength  of  the  resisting  force  of  worldliness;  and  it 
would  be  the  most  unpitying  thing  that  could  be  done 
to  Dives  or  any  other  man  to  take  him  to  heaven, 
unless  '  the  law  of  the  spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus  had 
made  him  free  from  the  law  of  sin  and  death.' 2  No 
idea  ever  betrayed  greater  ignorance  of  what  is  written 
in  the  Bible  than  this,  of  supposing  that  pity  or  bene- 
volence would  alleviate  a  worldly  man  who  is  only 
fitted  for  hell,  'made  to  be  taken  and  destroyed/  by 
admitting  him  to  heaven.  So  far  from  its  being  true 
that  God  is  bound  by  this  Moloch  of  law,  of  which 
some  speak,  to  torture  sinners  up  to  the  extent  of  their 
power  of  endurance,  He  allows  them  all  the  happiness 
of  which  their  natures  are  capable.  'He  maketh  Ilia 
»  Luke  XVL  31.  »  Rom.  viii.  2,  8,  7-23 ;  CoL  ii.  11. 


Law  the  Basis  of  God's  Rule  in  the  Soul.   213 

sun  to  rise  upon  the  evil,  and  sendeth  rain  upon  the 
unjust/  '  doing  them  good,  and  filling  their  heart  with 
food  and  gladness ; '  and  He  even  commands  us  to 
do  the  same,  if  we  would  '  be  perfect,  as  our  Father 
in  heaven  is  perfect.' *  Such  is  the  policy  of  God's 
government  in  dealing  with  sinners,  so  far  as  we  see 
it ;  and  how  should  we  suppose  that  it  is,  or  will  be, 
anywhere  or  ever,  different  ?  Instead  of  being  at  the 
beck  of  an  unpitying  law,  God  is  all  love  in  His  deal- 
ings with  His  enemies. 

But  it  may  be  said,  If  law  is  so  exclusively  a  matter 
between  the  soul  and  God,  what  guide  does  it  furnish 
for  the  affairs  of  practical  life  ?  Is  it  not  remote 
from  any  use  to  be  made  of  it  upon  earth  ?  I  answer, 
Though  the  cardinal  principle  of  God's  law  is  thus  a 
spiritual  unit  of  love  and  devotion  to  God,  yet  it  is 
reflected  by  many  specific  enactments,  covering  the 
whole  outward  life  of  man.  Some  of  these  were  tem- 
porary an<J  individual,  and  did  not  descend  to  the  next 
generation  ;  as  the  interdiction  of  a  certain  fruit  to 
Adam  considered  as  an  outward  fact,  the  duty  en- 
joined upon  Noah  to  build  an  ark,  that  upon  Abraham 
to  offer  up  his  son,  and  many  others.  The  outward 
duty  imposed  in  such  cases  is  based  upon  that  of 
inward  fealty  to  God ;  and  apart  from  that,  it  would 
have  no  force.  God's  government  has  no  outward 
police,  and  hence  it  cannot  hold  except  Joy  binding 
the  spirit.  Indeed,  in  the  case  of  Adam  the  outward 
law  was  a  test  of  inward  obedience,  and  that  obedience 
had  no  means  of  being  otherwise  put  to  the  proof  to 
develope  either  guilt  or  innocence.  'Where  there  is 
no  law,  there  is  no  transgression,'  and  no  obedience, 
for  the  voluntary  nature  is  without  a  moral  regulator.2 

1  Matt.  v.  44,  45  ;  Acts  xiv.  17.  'Horn.  iv.  15. 


214  Seed-  Truths. 

In  the  case  of  Abraham,  faith,  as  an  act  of  duty  to 
God,  was  put  to  the  proof.  Some  of  the  outward  laws 
were  for  a  particular  race,  as  circumcision,  the  Sinai 
ritual,  the  entail  of  Canaan  to  Israel,  and  David's 
rights  as  a  civil  ruler.  The  object  of  all  these,  how- 
ever, was  to  set  forth  in  some  of  its  relations  the  law 
as  a  spiritual  force  binding  the  soul  to  God. 

The  word  torah — law — covers  all  these  enactments, 
and  indeed  the  whole  word  of  God ;  though  it  is 
usually  accompanied  by  more  specifications,  such  as 
statutes,  ordinances,  commandments,  judgments  and  tes- 
timonies. The  word  covenant  is  usually  applied  to  the 
promises  to  Abraham,  or  to  the  tables  of  the  covenant, 
the  ten  commandments,  of  which  we  propose  to  speak 
in  our  next  chapter.  All  these  subordinate  provisions 
of  law  regulating  the  whole  outward  life  of  Israel,  re- 
present the  spiritual  law  in  some  of  its  relations.  They 
were  addressed  to  men  ruled  by  the  flesh,  and  incapable 
of  anything  more  spiritual,  putting  them  under  a  rigid 
discipline  as  to  their  whole  outward  life,  and  making  it 
death  to  swerve  from  any  of  the  prescribed  rules,  except 
as  purified  by  certain  appointed  ceremonies.  This  was 
to  convict  them  of  the  sinfulness  of  their  fleshly  life, 
and  how  impossible  it  was  for  them  to  become  right 
with  God  and  His  law  without  purification,  or  without 
becoming  spiritual  and  holy.  Men  had  lost  all  idea  of 
a  spiritual  law;  and  how  could  they  know  what  sin  is  in 
that  state,  any  more  than  a  dog  can  know  what  intel- 
lect is,  or  how  degraded  is  his  dog's  life  ?  The  whole 
tendency  of  the  enactments  to  Israel,  and  of  God's 
dealing  with  them  for  fifteen  hundred  years,  was  to 
show  them  the  difference  between  sin  and  holiness, 
clean  and  unclean,  a  life  of  fleshly  and  a  life  of  spiritual 
ruling;  and  the  extreme  punctiliousness  of  the 


Law  the  Basis  of  Gods  Rule  in  the  Soul.    2 1 5 

in  the  time  of  Christ  shows  that  they  had  outwardly 
grasped  the  idea,  ignorant  as  they  were  of  its  spiritual 
and  real  import.  The  day  of  Pentecost,  however,  con- 
verted into  power  the  letter  of  the  law ;  and  what  sin 
and  pollution  really  are  as  a  fleshly  and  debased  life  of 
opposition  to  a  spiritual  law,  flashed  upon  three  thou- 
sand at  once,  extorting  the  agonized  cry,  '  Men  and 
brethren,  what  shall  we  do  ? '  These  were  perhaps  as 
ceremonially  pure  as  any  men  in  th'e  nation  ;  but  sin 
and  holiness  they  found  quite  another  thing  from  any 
idea  derived  from  their  misinterpreted  law.  Now  was 
realized  one  of  the  last  predictions  of  the  last  of  their 
prophets :  '  Then  shall  ye  return,  and  discern  between 
the  righteous  and  the  wicked,  between  him  that  serveth 
God  and  him  that  serveth  Him  not.'1 

Thus  the  cardinal  truth  of  law  in  the  Bible  bears  like 
the  atmosphere  upon  the  whole  outward  life  of  man, 
by  acting  as  a  regulating  force  upon  all  that  gives  a 
moral  character  to  that  life.  It  purifies  the  fountain, 
and  how  should  not  its  streams  be  pure  ?  This  is  not 
done  by  the  law  and  the  prophets,  not  by  the  Abra- 
hamic  or  Sinai  covenant,  except  so  far  as  they  con- 
vinced of  sin,  and  predicted  a  future  Deliverer  from  its 
power;  but  it  is  effected  by  'the  precious  blood  of 
Christ'  as  applied  by  the  quickening  Spirit.  The  Holy 
Ghost  is  the  sole  power  of  killing  the  flesh  that  the 
spirit  may  live ;  which  killing  He  effects  not  only  by 
the  law,  but  by  the  crucifixion  of  Christ,  with  whom 
we  must  be  crucified,  if  we  would  have  Christ,  and 
law,  and  heaven  live  in  us.  Thus  one  idea  of  law 
obtains  throughout  the  word  of  God — a  law  spiritual, 
holy,  and  heavenly. 

ii.  37;  Mai.  iii  18. 


CHAPTEK    XIX. 

THE  NATURE  AND  USE  OP  THE  LAW  IN  STONE. 

IF  all  divine  laws  are  based  upon  a  relation  to  God 
and  the  spiritual  world,  to  which  our  fleshly  state 
renders  us  insensible,  of  what  use  are  the  ten  com- 
mandments ?  What,  in  fact,  is  the  use  of  any  law 
founded  in  that  relation  ?  Is  it  not  as  unavailing  as 
lessons  in  seeing  to  blind  men  ?  Certainly,  they  would 
be  so  in  any  other  view  than  as  a  means  of  restoring 
the  lost  faculty.  There  is  not  a  special  enactment 
in  the  Bible  that  has  not  redemption  in  view,  directly 
or  indirectly,  except  that  which  prohibited  a  certain 
tree  to  the  primeval  man.  All  laws  which  God  has 
enacted  since  the  fall,  are  with  a  view  to  recovering 
men  from  the  dominion  of  the  flesh,  and  restoring  them 
to  the  adoption  of  children  in  His  spiritual  family. 
Such  legislation  would  be  a  farce  of  the  gravest  and 
most  horrible  kind  among  the  hopelessly  lost. 

What  makes  redemptive  legislation  necessary  is  sin, 
— not  specific  sins,  such  as  lying,  theft,  murder,  and  the 
like,  but  sin  as  a  nature,  a  force  or  constitution  which 
is  just  as  susceptible  of  being  propagated  from  gene- 
ration to  generation  as  any  other  characteristic  of  the 
genus  homo.  'For  when  we  were  in  the  flesh,  the 
motions  of  sin  which  were  by  the  law  did  work  in  our 
members  to  bring  forth  fruit  unto  death.'1  Being  fin 
the  flesh'  describes  the  corrupted  nature  as  the  seeding, 

1  Rom.  vii.  5.     See  also  Horn,  v.  14-21,  viii.  2,  which  clearly  in- 
volves  the  idea  of  prupagsitiuu. 

216 


Nature  and  Use  of  the  Law  in  Stone.  2  T  7 

of  -which  all  specific  motions,  passions,  or  tendencies  to 
evil  as  developed  in  act,  are  the  harvest.  It  is  a  har- 
vest '  unto  death,'  as  being  devoid  of  all  spiritual  life  in 
God.  This  idea  of  propagated  evil  enters  as  fully  into 
the  natural  history  of  the  race  as  the  carnivorous 
appetite  of  a  lion  or  a  tiger,  though  it  is  only  from  the 
Bible  we  learn  that  it  had  its  origin  in  sin  as  an  act, 
becoming  sin  as  a  nature.  As  the  normal  condition  of 
human  nature  involves  sensibility  to  God  and  the  realm 
of  spirits  as  an  all-controlling  life-element,  what  but 
an  abnormal  and  sinful  condition  could  follow  the  loss 
of  it  ?  And  such  is  the  nature  of  the  case,  that  the 
loss  of  it  in  the  only  two  existing  parents  would  ensure 
it  in  their  children. 

Now  it  is  to  break  up  this  deep  incrustation  of 
carnality  and  materialism  that  the  law  is  given,  and 
especially  the  ten  commandments.  'The  motions  of 
sin  are  by  the  law/  in  the  same  sense  that  latent  disease 
is  by  the  potion  which  developed  it,  or  as  the  convul- 
sions of  a  drowned  man  are  produced  by  the  means 
used  to  restore  him  to  life.  The  law  does  not  create 
the  sin,  but  brings  it  to  the  surface,  reveals  it  to  the 
man's  consciousness,  and  awakens  in  him  efforts  to 
escape  its  dangerous  power.  '  I  had  not  known  sin 
but  by  the  law ;  for  I  had  not  known  lust,  except  the 
law  had  said,  Thou  shalt  not  covet;'1  that  is,  I  should 
not  have  known  it  as  lust  and  a  crime  against  God,  and 
death  to  all  my  spiritual  and  immortal  .hopes.  Sinai 
thunders  are  an  assault  upon  the  earthly  enclosure  in 
which  the  soul  has  encased  itself,  like  some  power  that 
might  be  supposed  to  be  brought  to  bear  upon  a  savage 
race  to  convince  it  of  its  savagery,  to  show  it  in  its 
most  hateful  light,  and  thus  to  act  as  a  primary  im- 
1  Horn.  vii.  7. 


218  Seed-Truths. 

pulse  towards  civilisation.  '  The  law  was  added  "because 
of  transgressions/  just  as  medical  science  is  added 
because  of  disease.  /'It  is  a  ministration  of  death, 
written  and  engraven  in  stone,'  but  ministering  death 
with  a  view  to  a  life  not  on  the  principle  of  law,  but 
of  grace.  It  is  '  the  strength  of  sin,'  which  without  law 
could  have  no  conscious  existence  and  no  power  of 
conviction.  '  What  shall  we  say  then  ?  Is  the  law 
sin  ? '  By  no  means.  '  But  sin,  that  it  might  appear 
sin,  working  death  in  me  by  that  which  is  good ;  that 
sin  by  the  commandment  might  become  exceedingly 
sinful.'1  Sin  is  not  made  exceedingly  sinful  by  the 
law,  for  it  is  so  in  itself;  but  it  is  made  to  appear  so  in 
the  soul's  consciousness. 

Having  thus  seen  the  use  which  inspired  men 
ascribe  to  the  ten  commandments,  the  question  arises 
as  to  what  effect  it  can  have  upon  men  in  a  state  of 
total  indifference  or  deadness  to  spiritual  truths  ?  I 
have  spoken  of  God's  addressing  us  in  our  natural 
state  in  ways  adapted  to  our  apprehension,  and  thus 
of  '  coming  down'  to  us,  and  of  '  knocking'  at  the  outer 
gateway  of  the  soul.  This  is  especially  true  of  the  ten 
commandments  as  delivered  from  Sinai.  It  is  an  ap- 
peal to  fear,  the  same  as  the  cherubim  at  the  gate  of 
Eden,  which  we  have  already  noticed.  Fear  of  death, 
and  of  what  is  to  ensue  in  another  world,  is  one  of  the 
most  active  principles  of  human  nature.  What  but 
this  has  given  such  force  to  Shakespeare's  words,  ascrib- 
ing to  it  the  consent  to  live  under  the  world's  irretriev- 
able calamities  ? 

•For  who  would  bear  the  whips  and  scorns  of  time, 
The  oppressor's  wrong,  the  proud  man's  contumely, 

>  Gal.  iii.  19  ;  2  Cor.  iii.  7  ;  1  Cor.  xv.  56. 


Nature  and  Use  of  the  Law  in  Stone.  219 

The  pangs  of  despised  love,  the  law's  delay, 

The  insolence  of  of  lice,  and  the  spurns 

That  patient  merit  of  the  unworthy  takes, 

"When  he  might  his  quietus  make 

With  a  bare  bodkin, 

But  Hue,  dread  of  something  after  death?* 

"\Vliat  sacrifices,  what  self-inflictions,  what  outlays,  to 
ensure  the  cover  of  a  priesthood !  what  various  devices 
of  men  to  ease  their  burdened  conscience,  and  assure 
themselves  that  all  will  be  well  with  them  when  they 
meet  their  final  doom !  Though  without  right  ideas 
on  the  subject,  and  with  little  regard  to  justice  or 
truth,  their  selfish  fears  make  them  unwilling  to  die 
unshrived  or  unpardoned.  Tribes  sunk  to  the  level  of 
nature,  anct  without  even  the  idea  of  a  God,  if  there 
be  such,  still  cling  to  their  amulets  as  a  mysterious 
power  to  ward  off  evil  and  ensure  them  happiness. 
Intellectual  men,  who  scout  the  idea  of  a  hereafter, 
often  find  their  courage  failing  as  death  approaches, 
and  gladly  seize  on  any  semblance  of  faith  as  a  support 
in  entering  the  dark  valley. 

This  is  the  principle  to  which  the  ten  command- 
ments make  their  appeal  They  are  thundered  from 
Sinai,  or  uttered  from  the  wilderness  in  the  rough 
tones  of  John  the  Baptist,  arousing  men  from  their 
deep  slumbers  in  sin  to  exercise  repentance  towards 
God.  They  give  no  power  for  the  enforced  duty,  it  is 
true ;  and  yet,  is  it  nothing  that  a  race  dead  in  sin 
should  be  made  to  stir  in  its  sepulchre  ?  Is  it  nothing 
to  awaken  in  them  the  sense  of  needing  something  better 
than  this  fleshly  life  ?  It  is  a  killing  process ;  but  how 
can  they  reach  a  resurrection  till  the  sin  in  which  they 
are  dies,  or  till  the  nature  from  which  they  reap  such 
a  harvest  of  sins  and  woes  is  crucified  with  Christ  ? 
The  law  asserts  God's  righteousness  ir  contrast  to  our 


2  2  o  Seed-  Truths. 

own  defilement,  and  thus  is  a  schoolmaster  to  bring  us 
to  Christ.1 

This  killing  work  of  law  is  as  necessary  as  a  pre- 
paration to  salvation,  as  grace  in  effecting  it.  Those 
who  have  not  learned  enough  of  law  to  feel  their  help- 
lessness, or  who  have  not  entered  '  the  inner  chamber ' 
of  the  soul's  '  imagery,  to  see  the  abominations '  that 
cover  themselves  there  in  darkness,  need  expect  no 
signal  victory  over  the  world,  the  flesh,  and  the  devil.2 
Their  piety  is  a  legalism  of  perpetual  resolves  to  do 
better,  in  which  failing,  they  are  all  the  time  miserable, 
and  basing  their  hopes  of  salvation,  perhaps,  on  the 
fact  of  this  misery,  as  a  sort  of  claim  upon  Christ's 
merits  to  make  up  the  deficiency.  If  the  law  makes 
them  cry  out,  '  O  wretched  man  that  I  am !'  it  seems 
to  suffice  them,  without  their  ever  being  able  to  say, 
'  I  thank  God,  through  Jesus  Christ  my  Lord,'  or  to 
feel  that  they  are  '  free  from  condemnation '  by  being 
actually  and  consciously  '  in  Christ.' 3  I  fear  that  the 
great  majority  of  those  who  have  named  the  name  of 
Christ  are  in  this  dubious  position  between  law  and 
grace,  living  and  .dying  without  ever  knowing  the 
gospel,  or  the  full  freedom  of  the  sons  of  God.  I  hope 
more  fully,  by  God's  grace,  to  enlarge  upon  these  ideas 
in  another  place. 

The  fitness  of  the  law  in  stone  to  do  this  killing 
work,  may  be  seen  from  the  manner  of  its  delivery,  from 
the  place  and  circumstances  of  its  conservation,  from  the 
sense  of  guilt  and  helplc-ssness  which  it  awakens,  and  from 
the  consenting  response  which  it  extorts  from  conscience. 

1  Gal.  iil  24.  The  idea  is  that  of  a  servant  leading  the  children  to 
end  from  school,  and  not  of  one  to  teach  them.  Christ  is  the  school- 
master or  teacher. 

» luck.  viii.  6-18.  »  Roiu.  vii.  24,  25,  viii.  L 


Nature  and  Use  of  the  Law  in  Stone.  221 

The  delivery  or  proclamation  of  an  important  enact- 
ment by  European  Governments  is,  by  royal  authority, 
by  certain  impressive  ceremonies,  and  by  threatened 
penalties,  to  awaken-  in  the  people  the  fear  of  trans- 
gressing it.  But  what  ever  equalled  in  this  respect 
the  proclamation  of  the  ten  commandments  from 
[Mount  Sinai  ?  They  were  first  spoken  by  God  Him- 
self, from  the  smoking,  lightning-riven  summit  of  the 
holy  mount,  and  reached  the  ears  of  the  people  in 
more  than  tones  of  earthly  thunder.  And  as  if  spoken 
words,  however  impressive,  and  a  visible  scene  so  ter- 
rible that  the  people  besought  that  it  might  not  be 
repeated,1  were  not  to  be  trusted  with  so  great  a  de- 
livery, they  were  engraven  in  two  tablets  of  stone  by 
God's  own  finger,  to  indicate  a  permanency  attaching 
to  no  other  part  of  the  Sinai  ceremonial.2  They  are  a 
condensed  view  of  how  we  are  to  work  out  in  conduct 
our  inward  fealty  to  the  Supreme  Legislator ;  they 
enforce  universal  and  eternal  obligations ;  they  have  a 
basis  in  natural  conscience  as  well  as  in  revealed  re- 
ligion; and  they  assert  the  great  principle,  that  no 
ceremonial  in  worship,  no  faith  or  professions  of  inward 
piety,  and  no  claims  upon  God  by  pious  parents  or 
interceding  priesthoods,  can  render  tis  acceptable  with- 
out good  morals.  Can  we  wonder  that  God  should 
have  surrounded  Himself  with  the  terrors  of  Sinai  in 
delivering  such  a  law,  and  that  He  should  have  added 
to  its  oral  utterance  its  miraculous  inscription  in  stone  ? 
And  yet,  such  is  human  nature,  that  the  event  proved 
how  impotent  was  the  fear  excited  by  the  delivery  of 
the  law,  since,  a  few  days  after,  these  same  people  who 

1  Ex.  xx.  19. 

2  Ex.  xxiv.  12,  xxxii.  15,  16,  xxxiv.  28,  29  ;  Deut  iv.  13   v.  22  ; 
Ex.  xx.  1. 


222  Seed-Triitks. 

heard  and  accepted  it  as  their  rule  of  life,  violated  its 
first  and  chief  precept — not  to  have  any  God  but 
Jehovah — and  were  shouting  to  a  golden  calf  in  their 
nakedness  and  revelry,  '  These  be  thy  gods,  0  Israel/ 
after  the  manner  of  the  bestial  worship  in  Egypt. 
And  Moses,  when  •  he  looked  on  the  disgusting  scene, 
was  so  indignant,  that  he  broke,  beneath  the  mount, 
the  two  tables  on  which  God  had  written  the  law,  to 
indicate  the  utter  failure  of  all  legal  expedients  to  raise 
man  from  his  earthliness  to  the  spiritual  and  heavenly 
life  for  which  he  was  created.1  It  was  then  proved 
that  the  law  could  only  convince  of  sin. 

The  place  and  circumstances  for  conserving  the  law 
were  as  remarkable  as  its  delivery.  The  two  tablets, 
after  being  renewed  by  God  Himself,2  were  deposited  in 
a  casket  of  shittim  wood  overlaid  with  gold,  the  lid  of 
which  was  the  earthly  throne  of  Jehovah  in  admini- 
stering the  government  over  Israel  The  law  was  the 
basis  of  this  throne,  called  the  mercy -seat,  to  show 
impressively  how  impossible  it  is  for  God  to  exercise 
mercy  on  any  basis  but  law ;  or,  in  other  words,  that 
it  would  be  no  mercy  to  man  to  take  him  into  favour 
with  Himself,  and  raise  him  to  heaven,  in  any  way  but 
that  of  restoring  him  to  a  holy  and  heavenly  life. 
'Make  the  tree  good,  and  his  fruit  will  be  good.' 
Cleanse  the  fountain,  and  its  streams  will  be  pure. 
Dives  in  heaven,  as  before  said,  would  be  more  miser- 
able than  in  hell.  The  gulf  is  impassable.  This  ark 
was  placed  in  the  holy  of  holies — a  large  room  from 
which  light  was  excluded,  to  show  that  Cod  dwells  to 
us,  as  fleshly  men,  in  thick  darkness.3  Over  it,  two 

1  Ex.  xxxii.  1-19.  •  Ex.  xxxiv.  1,  28. 

*  *  Kelt.  x.  20.  Christ  has  removed  this  darkm-ss,  by  musm-ating 
for  us,  '  through  the  veil  oi'  His  ilcsh,  a  iicw  uud  living  way.' 


Nature  and  Use  of  the  Law  in  Stone.  223 

cherubim,  with  expanded  wings,  stood  face  to  face,  the 
throne  of  God  and  His  law  being  between  them,  upon 
which  they  kept  watch  and  ward,  to  represent  how 
intent  all  heavenly  beings  are  to  Him  who  sitteth  upon 
the  throne,  and  to  His  divine  behests.  This  place 
where  the  law  was  deposited  was  separated  by  a  veil 
from  the  holy  place,  and  that  again  was  surrounded  by 
a  circumvallation  of  courts  and  cloisters ;  and  thus  the 
two  tables  were  excluded  from  all  profane  eyes,  and 
could  only  be  approached  by  the  high  priest  onCe  a 
year,  after  purification  by  blood,  and  while  sacrifices  and 
prayers  were  offered  in  his  behalf  on  the  part  of  the 
priests  and  people  without.  Can  any  outward  device 
be  imagined,  to  show  more  impressively  that  the  pre- 
cious .blood  of  Christ  must  first  flow,  before  the  law  can 
be  fully  restored  to  us,  and  that,  when  it  is  restored,  it 
will  be  in  the  secret  recesses  of  the  soul,  upon  which 
no  eye  can  look  but  our  High  Priest,  '  who  has  passed 
into  the  heavens,'  and  '  who  is  set  on  the  right  hand 
of  the  throne  of  the  Majesty  on  high?'1  Unless  the 
reader  keeps  in  view  the  law  of  God  as  a  unit  of  His 
ruling  within  our  souls,  from  which  He  had  been  cast 
out  by  our  coming  under  the  ruling  of  natural  ideas 
and  fleshly  lusts,  and  that  this  is  the  present  condition 
of  humanity,  all  this  symbolism  will  be  lost  upon  him ; 
and  what  is  worse,  it  will  fill  his  mind  with  false  ideas 
and  corrupted  theology.  It  is  only  by  searching  Scrip- 
ture, and  comparing  spiritual  things  with  spiritual,  that 
the  chaff  can  be  eliminated  from  the  wheat,  or  truth, 
as  in  the  thought  of  holy  seers,  can  detach  itself  from 
material  symbols.  You  and  I,  reader,  must  accept  the 
law  as  God's  dominion  in  our  souls  by  the  Holy  Ghost, 
or  we  can  make  no  advance  in  salvation. 
1  Heb.  iv.  14,  viiL  1. 


224  Seed-  Truths. 

Another  aspect  in  the  working  of  the  law  written 
on  stone  is,  that  of  the  sense  of  guilt  and  helplessness 
which  it  produces  in  one  who  honestly  endeavours  to 
keep  it.  Who  can  by  any  effort  of  his  own  love  God 
with  all  his  heart  ?  Who  can  repress  concupiscence  ? 
How  have  millions,  by  their  own  confession,  vainly 
struggled  in  the  endeavour  ?  Can  we  detach  ourselves 
from  our  own  nature,  and  take  on  one  as  foreign  to  our- 
selves as  spirit  is  from  matter,  earthly  from  heavenly 
ideas  ?  No ;  there  must  be  a  death  of  what  we  are, 
before  we  can  have  a  resurrection  to  a  state  so  exalted. 
And  a  dying  process  is  always  one  of  helplessness :  the 
grave  closes  only  upon  those  who  were  too  weak  to 
conquer  disease  and  death ;  and  a  law  that  can  only 
consign  us  to  the  sepulchre,  or  that  can  only  say, 
'  Cursed  is  every  one  that  continue th  not  in  all  things 
written  in  the  book  of  the  law,  to  do  them,'  comes 
infinitely  short  of  the  necessities  of  our  condition.1 
To  return  to  a  former  illustration :  Suppose  transmi- 
gration were  possible,  and  you  had  a  friend  whose  soul 
had  gone  into  a  dog,  would  it  be  enough  to  awake  him 
to  a  sense  of  his  condition  ?  That  would  only  torment 
him,  unless  it  were  a  necessary  measure  of  restoring 
him  to  his  former  state  of  manhood.  This  is  all  the 
law  can  do — convince  us  of  the  strength  of  our  flesh, 
and  of  its  own  consequent  impotence  to  raise  us  to  a 
new  life.  'The  law  entered  that  the  offence  might 
abound ; '  but  we  must  look  elsewhere  for  deliverance 
from  its  power.2  By  what  we  have  before  said,  and 
are  to  say,  in  reference  to  the  mode  of  reaching  a 
resurrection  life,  the  exact  position  of  the  ten  com- 
mandments in  the  Bible,  we  trust,  will  become  sulli- 
cicntly  clear.  That  after  fifteen  hundred  years  they 
1  Gal.  iii.  10.  f  Rom.  v.  20. 


Nature  and  Use  of  the  Law  in  Stone.      225 

had  failed  to  give  righteousness  to  any  Jew,  as  the 
apostle  states  in  Romans,  or  any  independence  of  faith 
for  justification  more  than  a  Gentile,  shows  how  hope- 
less they  are  as  a  basis  of  salvation.1 

The  tables  of  stone  were  a  covenant  as  well  as  a 
law,  not  being  statutes  imposed  without  the  consent  of 
the  governed,  but  a  contract  between  God  and  men. 
They  were  of  a  nature  to  obtain  even  from  natural 
conscience  a  consenting  response.  Who  can  claim  the 
right  of  turning  from  the  God  who  has  'redeemed* 
him, — the  reason  assigned  for  having  no  God  but 
Jehovah  ?  Who  is  not  forced  to  confess,  that  he 
ought  not  to  steal  ?  Such  is  the  law,  that  it  must 
hold  upon  moral  natures  like  ours ;  and  thus  it  cannot 
fail  to  awaken  a  sense  of  guilt  in  those  to  whom  it  is 
fairly  brought  home,  however  they  may  still  continue 
joined  to  their  idols  of  flesh.  Hence  we  have  not 
only  God  speaking  the  law  from  Sinai,  but  the  people 
responding,  '  All  that  the  Lord  hath  spoken  we  will  do  ; 
and  Moses  returned  these  words  of  the  people  unto  the 
Lord.' 2  Though  in  one  sense  an  absolute  Sovereign 
in  redemption,  God  rules  only  a  consenting  people. 
No  being  in  the  universe  more  clearly  and  decidedly 
respects  the  freedom  of  the  human  soul  than  He  who 
endowed  it  with  its  prerogatives.  Indeed,  it  would  be 
reducing  mind  to  a  level  with  matter,  to  coerce  it  under 
any  but  a  representative  government,  or  a  government 
depending  upon  the  consent  of  the  governed.  If  their 
consent  is  not  obtained,  they  pass  under  another  god 
and  under  another  code,  in  hostility  to  Jehovah ;  but 
that  cannot  succeed  in  resisting  the  thunder  of  His 
power.  They  are  free,  but  it  is  the  freedom  of  hell. 

1  Rom.  iii.  18,  19. 

1  E-v.  ***.  b  ;  i^uit.  v.  27  ;  Ex.  xxiv.  3,  7. 

P 


226  Seed-  Truths. 

In  reference  to  this  agreement  between  God  and  the 
people,  the  tables  of  the  law  were  called  '  tables  of 
testimony/  the  ark  'the  ark  of  the  covenant/  and  the 
tabernacle  'the  tabernacle  of  witness/  because  they 
were  a  sort  of  register-office  to  stand  as  a  perpetual 
witness  of  the  precise  terms  of  the  contract,  and  as 
a  means  of  convicting  delinquents  of  their  violated 
pledges  and  dishonest  dealings  with  God.1  It  is 
viewed  in  the  light  of  a  nuptial  bond  wedding  the 
soul  to  God;  and  both  Israel  and  the  apostolic 
churches  were  charged  with  conjugal  infidelity  when- 
ever they  forsook  their  Head  and  Husband.  Thus  in 
the  prophets ; 2  and  Dean  Alford  understands  the 
adulterers  and  adulteresses  whom  James  addresses 
among  Christians  in  the  same  light,  and  he  renders 
the  succeeding  passage  accordingly:  'The  Spirit  He 
placed  in  us  jealously  desireth  us.'  He  is  '  grieved ' 
by  our  wandering  worldly  desires,  as  a  husband  by  the 
alienated  affections  of  his  wife.3  The  oneness  of  the 
parties  in  a  marriage  is  spoken  of  as  '  a  great  mystery/ 
because  it  pertains  'to  Christ  and  His  church/  or  a 
'joining  o"f  the  soul  in  one  spirit  with  the  Lord.'4 
Who  will  say,  that  a  law  which  represents  sin  not 
only  as  violating  a  solemn  contract,  but  the  heart's 
most  sacred  pledges,  is  not  pre-eminent  in  its  con- 
victing power  ? 

It  is  objected  to  the  importance  and  perpetuity  of 
the  law  in  stone,  that  it  tells  us  what  not  to  do,  but 
not  what  we  ought  to  do.  It  is  negative  rather  than 

>  Ex.  xxxii.  15  ;  Heb.  ix.  4  ;  Num.  xvii.  7,  x.  33  ;  Deut.  xxxi.  26. 
•  Jer.  iii.  2,  9;  Kz.k.  xxiii.  37,  xvi.  38;  Hos.  iii.  1,  iv.  12;  Lev. 
xvii.  7  ;  2  Cliron.  xxi.  11  ;  Ex.  xxxiv.  15,  and  many  others. 
8  Jas.  iv.  4.  5  ;  Kpli.  iv.  30. 
4  1  Cor.  vi.  17  ;  l^.li.  v.  32. 


Nature  and  Use  of  the  Law  in  Stone.     227 

positive.  Eight  of  its  precepts  are  negative ;  one  of 
the  other  two  has  changed  its  form,  and  no  such 
Sabbath  as  it  enjoined  upon  the  Jews  now  exists ; 
while  the  other,  enjoining  duty  to  parents,  is  an  in- 
stinct of  nature,  and  therefore  unnecessary. 

It  is  sufficient  to  reply  to  this,  that  Moses,  our 
Lord,  and  the  Apostle  Paul,  condense  the  whole  spirit 
of  the  law  into  love  to  God  and  man,  showing  thaf" 
they  at  least  conceived  of  it  as  expressing  a  principle 
that  was  not  done  away  by  the  gospel,  like  the  rest  of 
the  Sinai  ceremonial,  but  is  of  perpetual  obligation.1 
This  is  the  principle  considered  in  our  last  chapter, 
growing  out  of  the  soul's  direct  relationship  to  God  as 
Spirit,  involving  the  duty  of  coming  under  His  ruling 
in  all  things,  which  is  the  meaning  of  loving  God  with 
all  our  hearts.  Besides,  each  of  the  negative  com- 
mandments involves  positive  duties;  nor  can  it  be 
observed  without  doing  those  duties.  It  guards  a 
point  at  which  the  soul's  affections  and  activities  are 
liable  to  flow  in  a  wrong  direction ;  and  if  the  crevasse 
is.  stopped,  they  will  be  confined  to  the  true  channel 
of  love,  duty,  and  obedience.  It  is  as  if  a  mighty 
river,  now  overflowing  a  wide  extent  of  country,  con- 
verting it  into  a  vast  quagmire,  covering  it  with  a 
deadly  miasma,  and  causing  it  to  breed  crocodiles, 
serpents,  and  every  noxious  animal,  were  diked  and 
confined  to  its  proper  channel,  and  this  country  was 
thus  restored  to  green  fields,  blooming  gardens,  beau- 
tiful forests,  and  all  the  glories  of  cultivation.  Thus, 
if  the  human  affections  and  activities  were  confined  at 
the  points  guarded  by  the  law,  they  would  flow  in  the 
direction  of  all  that  is  virtuous,  holy,  and  beneficent. 

We  have  only  to  look  at  the  terms  of  the  first  table 
1  Deut.  vi.  5;  Mark  xii.  30;  Rom.  *&.  10. 


223  Seed-Truths.' 

of  the  law,  to  see  how  fully  it  justifies  making  its  ful- 
filment consist  in  supreme  love  and  devotion  to  God. 
If  we  had  no  other  God  but  Jehovah,  what  would 
ensue  but  the  centring  of  all  love,  devotion,  and  obe- 
dience in  Him  ?  We  are  so  constituted,  that  some 
passion  and  purpose  will  rule  us.  If  it  is  not  one 
thing,  it  will  be  another.  By  cutting  off  the  stream 
in  other  directions,  what  can  follow  but  its  concen- 
trated force  in  the  only  remaining  channel  ?  A  man 
cut  off  from  all  other  gods  and  all  other  ruling  powers 
within  or  around  him,  cannot  do  otherwise,  as  he  is 
constituted,  but  give  Jehovah  the  supreme  place  in 
things,  and  thus  fulfil  the  cardinal  principle  of  all 
divine  law, — that  of  having  God  rule  us  in  all  things. 
'  Thou  shalt  have  no  other  gods  before  me '  is  a  pre- 
cept that  admits  of  no  construction  but  that  of  loving 
God  with  all  our  soul,  and  mind,  and  strength.1  The 
wisdom  of  such  a  principle  both  in  the  individual 
and  in  society  makes  it  worthy  of  God,  and  of  a  first 
place  in 'His  law.  Who  can  be  happy  with  divided 
and  conflicting  passions  ?  Who  does  not  need  some 
such  ruling  force  within  him,  in  order  to  the  har- 
monious action  of  the  various  impulses  of  his  own 
being?  'Unite  my  heart  to  fear  Thy  name'  is  a 
prayer  as  necessary  to  one's  peace  as  to  his  piety. 
And  as  to  social  order,  how  can  we  have  it  without 
a  common  and  all-controlling  centre,  like  the  sun  in 
the  solar  system  ?  Never  will  the  nations  be  secured 
against  war  till  the  principle  of  this  divine  enactment 
is  adopted,  and  all  are  held  by  some  supreme  power  of 
international  law  as  a  central  force  to  regulate  their  in- 
tercourse among  themselves.  Philanthropy  and  states- 
manship can  never  devise 'a  better  code  than  that 
1  i:.\.  .\x. 


Nature  and  Use  of  the  Law  in  Stone.     229 

which  was  enunciated  nearly  four  thousand  years  ago 
from  the  broken  summits  of  Peninsular  Arabia. 

The  second  commandment  guards  against  the  uni- 
versal tendency  of  men  to  materialism  in  their  theo- 
logies. As  the  flesh,  the  world,  and  natural  ideas  rule 
them  to  the  exclusion  of  spirit,  what  could  be  expected 
of  them  but  the  worship  of  images  in  gold,  silver,  and 
precious  stones ;  or  that  they  should  pay  their  adora- 
tion to  animals,  four-footed  beasts,  and  creeping  things  ? 
So  wrapped  up  in  these  had  the  nations  become,  that 
they  could  conceive  of  only  local  divinities — nothing 
better,  at  least,  than  sun,  moon,  stars,  and  the  forces  of 
nature ;  and  the  idea  of  the  one  living  and  true  God 
as  an  infinite  intelligence  had  actually  perished  from 
the  minds  of  men.  Even  Israel,  for  more  than  a 
thousand  years  of  its  national  life,  was  ever  back- 
sliding into  image-worship,  and  the  other  five  hundred 
it  gave  to  the  idolatry  of  its  ritual,  which  in  the  time 
of  our  Lord  was  little  better  than  the  heathenism  of 
the  surrounding  nations.  And  even  to  this  day,  by  far 
the  greater  portion  of  the  world  are  idolaters, — a  re- 
mark which  may  even  apply  to  Christendom  so  called, 
since  pictures,  statuary,  architecture,  and  a  thousand 
ritual  devices,  enter  so  largely  into  its  worship.  The 
Catholics  have  even  cancelled  this  second  command- 
ment, to  save  themselves  from  its  maledictions  in  a 
practice  which  is  as  God-dishonouring  as  it  is  debasing 
to  mankind.  In  all  lands  where  this  material  theo- 
logy obtains,  an  incubus  rests  upon  civilisation  and 
morals.  '  Thou  shalt  not  worship  any  graven  image  ' 
is  an  interdiction  that  would  preclude  nine-tenths  of 
the  world's  worship,  and  of  its  causes  of  depression  and 
demoralization.1  Considering  the  state  of  the  nations, 

1  Ex.  xx.  5,  6. 


230  Seed-Truths. 

can  we  wonder  that  such  a  precept  should  be  second 
in  the  tablets  of  stone  written  by  God's  finger,  or  that 
the  Old  Testament  should  be  such  a  continual  protest 
against  idolatry  ?  Not  only  material  images  are  for- 
bidden, but  ideal  ones,  as  consisting  in  false  views  of 
God  and  corrupt  theologies,  that  all  our  thoughts  of 
Him  may  be  worthy  of  His  adorable  character,  and 
that  we  may  '  sanctify  the  Lord  God  in  our  hearts,  and 
make  Him  our  fear  and  our  dread.' l 

The  third  commandment  touches  a  most  active  prin- 
ciple, that  of  introducing  the  name  of  God  into  speech. 
It  does  not  forbid  this ;  but  only  the  '  taking  of  it  in 
vain/  or  with  lightness,  irreverence,  and  profanation: 
'  The  Lord  will  not  hold  him  guiltless  that  taketh  His 
name  in  vain.' 2  Not  only  is  cursing  and  swearing  for- 
bidden, but  using  God's  name  as  an  expletive  to  set  off 
discourse  or  give  power  to  affirmations.  The  idle  re- 
petition of  it,  as  in  heathen  worship,  where  the  name 
of  the  god  is  called  over  and  over  again,  '  0  Baal,  0 
Baal/  as  a  Catholic  counts  his  beads,  or  a  savage  his 
amulets,  as  if  we  were  to  '  be  heard  by  our  much  speak- 
ing/ or  by  the  charm  of  a  name,  is  forbidden  by  our 
Lord  ;  and  our  words  are  to  be  few  and  simple.3  It  for- 
bids also  the  profanation  of  hypocrisy  in  worship,  or  of 
'  drawing  nigh  to  God  with  our  lips  while  our  hearts  are 
far  from  Him/ — thus  imposing  on  ourselves  and  others, 
but  not  on  the  Searcher  of  all  hearts.4  This  precept 
contemplates  a  purified  speech,  wherein  the  yea  shall 
be  yea,  and  the  nay  nay,  to  which  truth  and  sincerity 
shall  add  force,  and  manifest  integrity  shall  secure  con- 
viction.5 "Who  can  estimate  the  wide-reaching  results 

l  Isa.  viii.  13.  »  Ex.  xx.  7. 

»  Alsitt.  vi.  7  ;  1  Kings  xviii.  20. 

.  la  j  licv.  ii.  2a.  *  Matt.  v.  37. 


Nature  and  Use  of  the  Law  in  Stone.     231 

of  such  a  law  ?  It  would  secure  the  house  of  God 
against  mimicry  and  pantomime;  it  would  purify  and 
exalt  social  intercourse ;  it  would  put  an  end  to  the 
oaths  which  tremble  on  the  lips  of  age,  and  are  caught 
up  and  reverberated  by  the  young  ;  and  it  would  ensure 
in  discourse  '  that  which  is  good  to  the  use  of  edifying, 
that  it  may  minister  grace  to  the  hearers.' l  Men  will 
talk;  men  will  employ  the  name  of  God;  how  else 
can  they  worship  ?  And  '  by  their  words  they  shall  be 
justified,  and  by  their  words  they  shall  be  condemned/ 
because  words  are  not  only  determinative  of  what  is  in 
them,  but  of  what  they  are  doing  for  the  weal  or  woe 
of  others.2  Can  we  overestimate  the  law  which  gives 
God  His  due  place  in  language  ? 

The  seed-thought  of  the  fourth  commandment  is  that 
of  the  divine  holiness  :  '  Eemember  the  Sabbath-day,  to 
keep  it  holy' 3  We  are  to  ' hallow '  the  Sabbath,  not 
in  the  sense  of  making  the  time  holy,  but  as  a  memo- 
rial of  the  divine  holiness,  and  by  cultivating  in  our- 
selves that  holiness  without  which  no  man  shall  see 
the  Lord.4  The  two  ideas  of  holiness  and  rest  are  con- 
joined in  the  Bible,  because  they  are  inseparable  in 
experience.  Holiness  is  that  harmony  in  God,  or  that 
due  balance  of  His  attributes,  without  which  power 
would  be  tyranny,  omniscience  craft,  justice  revenge, 
and  even  the  amiable  attribute  of  mercy  would  degene- 
rate into  blind  prodigality  or  undiscriminating  fond- 
ness. And  a  mind  in  harmony  within  itself  is  in 
repose.  No  tempest  of  passion  agitates  it ;  no  unsatis- 
fied desires  canker  within.  Hence  our  Lord  assigns 
meekness  and  lowliness,  that  is,  harmonized  desires,  as 
a  reason  why  the  weary  and  heavy  laden  would  find 

1  Epli.  iv.  29.  2  Matt.  xii.  37.  3  Ex.  xx.  9-11. 

4  Jcr.  xvii.  22  ;  Ezek.  xx.  20,  xliv.  24  ;  Heb.  xii.  11 


232  Seed-  Truths. 

rest  in  Him ;  and  the  perfect  holiness  of  His  nature 
ensured  for  Him,  under  all  His  pains  and  conflicts,  the 
peace  which  He  has  bequeathed  to  His  people.1  The 
apostle  also  applies  the  term  Sabbath  to  the  rest  into 
which  believers  enter,  likening  it  to  that  into  which 
God  entered  on  the  seventh  day  of  creation ;  and  He 
adds,  '  There  remaineth  therefore  a  scibbatizing,  or  Sab- 
bath of  rest,  to  the  people  of  God.'  And  they  have  already 
entered  it  by  faith :  '  for  we  which  have  believed  do 
enter  into  rest.'  To  a  like  rest  our  Lord  invites  us, 
plainly  showing  that  Sabbath  stands  for  the  holiest 
and  happiest  things  of  His  church.2 

God  connected  with  His  labours  in  creation,  and 
with  His  care  of  this  working-day  world,  the  truth  of 
infinite  repose  in  Himself  as  the  result  of  His  perfectly 
balanced  attributes,  and  not  only  entails  the  same  to 
all  of  like  character,  but  has  institutionally  held  it 
forth  from  the  beginning  of  time.  With  the  loss  of 
this  truth,  the  Sabbath  itself  seems  to  have  perished. 
Moses  revived  it  in  the  wilderness  with  appendages 
in  the  civil  government  over  Israel  which  have  since 
ceased.  But  the  institution  in  its  primary  and  car- 
dinal idea  of  the  rest  of  holiness,  as  written  in  stone 
with  the  nine  other  commandments,  is  equally  binding 
upon  us  to  remember  it  as  of  unabated  and  undying 
obligation.  In  heaven  it  will  be  more  to  us,  no  doubt, 
than  upon  earth.  It  can  no  more  perish  than  the 
divine  holiness.  The  change  of  day  and  outward  forms 
of  observance,  of  which  some  make  so  much  account, 
from  failing  to  look  at  the  scriptural  truth  of  the  in- 
stitution, cannot  abate  its  force.  Even  without  this 
truth,  and  regarding  it  simply  as  a  civil  institution  for 

1  Matt.  XL  29  ;  John  xiv.  27,  zvi.  33. 
MM),  iv.  1-0. 


Nature  and  Use  of  the  Law  in  Stone.     233 

natural  men,  how  beneficent  its  effects  upon  man,  the 
labouring  animals,  and  the  whole  social  system ! 

That  I  do  not  err  and  am  not  fanciful  in  this  view 
of  the  fourth  commandment,  any  one  may  see  by  look- 
ing at  the  two  words  applied  to  the  institution  in 
Hebrew,  and  their  use  in  other  connections.  They  are 
JOP,  shebah,  seven ;  and  ria^  shabbath,  rest.  Seven 
was  a  sacred  number  among  the  Hebrews,  and  is  used 
for  an  oath ;  and  the  verb  from  which  it  is  made  ex- 
pressed the  most  hallowed  idea  of  which  they  had  a 
conception.1  It  was  also  used  for  completeness  or  ful- 
ness in  the  times  of  worship ; 2  for  the  utmost  extent 
of  calamity;3  and  for  punishment  in  full  measure.4 
Thus  the  idea  of  completeness,  fulness,  perfection,  in- 
heres in  the  term ;  and,  as  applied  to  God,  it  refers  to 
the  infinite  perfection  of  His  nature,  as  illustriously 
displayed  when  the  first  Sabbath  dawned  upon  His 
completed  work  of  creation :  '  the  morning  stars  sang 
together,  and  the  sons  of  God  shouted  for  joy.'  It 
denotes,  not  that  God  ceased  to  energize  through  all 
nature,  but  the  eternal  harmony  of  His  attributes  as 
brought  out  in  His  works,  leading  heavenly  beings  to 
single  out  this  attribute  before  all  others  in  their  cry 
of  '  Holy,  holy,  holy.'  This  cry  comprehends  all  God's 
attributes,  and  all  His  works  in  their  harmonious  ad- 
justment, as  beauty  all  the  features  in  their  united 
result.  Neither  love,  justice,  nor  truth,  in  its  separate, 
capacity,  can  come  up  to  an  angel's  conception  of  God, 
more  than  a  single  feature  in  our  idea  of  a  beautiful 
face.  Holiness  is  beauty.5 

This  attribute  of  harmony  is  marvellously  refilled 

1  Gen.  xxi.  28  ;  Ex.  xxxvii.  23  ;  Lev.  iv.  16,  17. 

*  PS.  cxix.  164.  3  Prov.  xxiv.  16. 

*  Lev.  xxvi.  18,  21.  8  Ps.  ex.  3. 


234  Seed-  Truths. 

even  in  material  nature,  adding  force  to  the  saying, 
that  '  the  imdevout  astronomer  is  mad.'  For  millions 
of  years,  so  far  as  we  know,  the  spheres  have  main- 
tained their  mystic  dance  without  jostling  or  colliding. 
"What  has  in  it  more  of  the  sublime  than  the  rest  or 
quietude  with  which  the  solar  orbs  perform  their  cycles 
through  the  ethereal  expanse,  traversing  infinite  spaces, 
and,  in  doing  so,  giving  birth  and  being  to  innumerable 
forms  of  life,  all  noiseless,  quiet,  harmonious  ?  "Who 
can  imagine  a  more  glorious  showing  in  material  things 
of  the  infinite  harmony  in  which  they  had  their  origin, 
than  the  Sabbath  of  God's  completed  works  had  to 
offer? 

Thus  we  have,  in  the  first  table  of  the  law,  the  one 
Jehovah  as  the  central  fact  of  creation  and  of  redeem- 
ing power;  we  have  true  ideas  of  His  adorable  cha- 
racter enjoined ;  we  have  His  name  as  an  inspiration 
of  truth,  reverence,  and  sincerity  in  His  worship ;  and 
we  have  the  rest  of  holiness  as  the  complement  of  the 
first  table  of  the  law,  including  love  to  God  with  all 
our  heart,  mind,  and  strength, — the  sum  of  all  piety 
and  of  all  happiness. 

'  And  those  who  stand  upon  the  sea  of  glass, 
And  those  who  stand  upon  the  battlements 
And  lofty  towers  of  New  Jerusalem, 
And  those  who  circling  stand,  bowing  afar, 
Exalted  on  the  everlasting  hills, 
Thousands  of  thousands,  thousands  infinite, 
"With  voice  of  boundless  love,  answered,  Amen  ; 
And  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost, 
The  one  Eternal,  smilc«l  .superior  bliss  ; 
And  every  eye  and  every  face  in  heaven, 
Eeikcted  and  reflecting,  beams  with  love.' 


CHAPTER     XX. 

THE  DIVINE  INDWELLING  IN  OUR  SOCIAL  RELATIONS. 

GOD,  in  the  adytum  of  man's  nature,  on  the  basis 
of  law,  works  Himself  out  in  all  our  external 
relations,  symbolized  in  Israel  by  an  orderly  people 
and  a  fruitful  land ;  and  doctrinally  stated  in  the  gos- 
pel as  glorifying  God  in  body  and  spirit,  showing  forth 
His  praise,  and  adorning  the  doctrine  of  God  our 
Saviour  in  all  things.1  And  it  is  in  reference  to  the 
sanctity  which  the  character  of  all  believers  is  supposed 
to  acquire  from  their  new  interior  life,  that  they  are 
called  saints,  holy  brethren,  partakers  of  the  heavenly 
calling ;  and  they  are  exhorted  by  the  mercies  of  God, 
thus  inwardly  manifested,  to  present  their  bodies  a 
living  sacrifice,  holy  and  acceptable  unto  God,  which 
is  their  reasonable  sacrifice.2  That  these  terms  have 
gone  into  disuse  in  expressing  discipleship,  indicates  a 
falling  off  in  sanctity ;  insomuch  that  the  circles  are 
comparatively  few  to  which  saint,  holy  brethren,  would 
not  be  felt  to  be  a  misnomer.  But  as  we  write  to 
develope  seed-truths  in  the  word  itself,  and  not  their 
supposed  germination  in  existing  character,  we  are 
compelled  to  keep  to  what  is  written  of  God's  en- 
thronement within  on  the  basis  of  law,  and  its  out- 
working in  the  life. 

1  1  Cor.  vi.  20,  x.  31. 

*  Heb.  iii.  1  ;  Rom.  xii.  1  ;  1  Cor.  i.  2,  et  al 


236  Seed-  Truths. 

No  imagery  is  more  glowing  than  the  representative 
outworking  of  enthroned  divinity  in  the  exterior  life 
of  His  ancient  people.  Sons  were  as  olive-plants 
around  their  board ;  daughters  as  polished  stones  cut 
in  the  similitude  of  a  palace ;  garners  full  of  all  man- 
ner of  stores ;  sheep  bringing  forth  ten  thousands,  and 
oxen  strong  to  labour ;  no  breaking  in,  going  out,  nor 
complaining  in  the  streets :  thus  happy  is  that  people 
whose  God  is  the  Lord.1  The  early  and  latter  rain 
causing  the  springing  of  the  pastures,  the  fruitfulness 
of  vine  and  fig-tree ;  barns  full  of  wheat ;  vats  over- 
flowing with  wine  and  oil ;  plenty  and  satisfaction  on 
every  hand,  betokened  God's  presence  in  the  midst  of 
His  people.2  The  Lord  caused  them  to  ride  on  the 
high  places  of  the  earth,  even  in  passing  through  the 
deserts  of  Arabia  Petrea,  to  eat  the  increase  of  the 
fields ;  to  suck  honey  out  of  the  rock,  and  oil  from  the 
flinty  rock ;  butter  of  kine,  and  milk  of  sheep,  with  fat 
of  lambs,  and  rams  of  the  breed  of  Bashan,  and  goats, 
with  the  fat  of  the  kidneys  of  wheat :  they  were  fed, 
and  drank  of  the  pure  blood  of  the  grape.8  Such  are 
the  glowing  images  which  represented  to  a  sensuous 
age  the  outworking  of  divine  truth  and  love,  overspread- 
ing the  whole  external  scene  with  bloom  and  beauty ; 
thus  foreshadowing  the  blessedness  of  an  indwelling 
Saviour  to  a  regenerated  people. 

It  is  often  asked  wherein  the  Mosaic  law  in  stone  is 
superior  to  the  institutes  of  other  legislators  ?  Do  not 
even  heathen  and  savages  honour  parents,  condemn 
murder,  adultery,  thieving,  lying,  and  infringements 
upon  other's  rights  ?  And  the  codes  of  Solon,  Lycur- 
gus,  Numa,  and  others,  are  urged  with  a  leer  of  triumph, 
as  more  than  offsetting  the  words  claimed  to  be  spoken 
1  Ps.  ciliv.  12-15.  2  ilos.  ii.  21-23.  *  Deut.  xxxii.  13,  14. 


Divine  Indwelling  in  oiir  Social  Relations.  237 

and  written  by  Jehovah  on  Mount  Sinai.  But  these 
codes  were  political  rather  than  personal,  distributing 
men  into  classes,  and  prescribing  the  functions  of  each 
as  members  of  the  state,  and  not  with  a  view  of  regu- 
lating the  interior  life.  Solon  made  property  instead 
of  birth  the  basis  of  citizenship ;  Lycurgus  divided  the 
state  into  three  orders,  made  a  distribution  of  the  lands, 
provided  a  common  table,  prescribed  a  rigorous  system 
of  gymnastics,  and  required  the  state  to  own  and  train 
the  children,  chiefly  with  a  view  to  power  in  war. 
Numa  enacted  a  politico-religious  system,  classifying 
the  people,  determining  the  duties  of  pontiffs  and  the 
rites  of  religion ;  but  giving  no  hint,  not  even  by  sym- 
bol, of  a  new  condition  of  the  inner  nature,  fitting  it 
for  consociation  with  a  personal  God,  or  as  a  dwelling- 
place  of  the  Infinite  Spirit.  Their  institutes  are  as  re- 
mote from  the  animus  and  intent  of  the  Sinai  covenant, 
as  the  tactics  of  the  Prussian  army,  or  the  legislation 
of  Parliament  or  Congress. 

Moses'  law  hinges  upon  a  right  condition  of  the  soul 
towards  God,  in  obedience  to  the  first  table,  regulating 
the  spiritual  relations  as  a  prerequisite  to  social  and 
civil  life.  It  is  fundamental  to  revealed  religion,  and 
a  basis  for  universal  duty,  in  heaven  as  well  as  on 
earth,  and  is  as  pervading  and  enduring  as  the  power 
of  moral  obligation.  It  includes  all  the  elements  of  a 
spiritual  and  holy  life,  as  our  Lord's  interpretation  and 
illustration  of  it  in  His  teaching  and  life,  thus  magni- 
fying it  and  making  it  honourable,  clearly  prove.  The 
Episcopal  Church  is  to  be  honoured  for  its  weekly 
repetition  of  the  ten  commandments  ;  but  among  other 
denominations  how  rarely  do  we  hear  them,  and  how 
much  more  rarely  still  do  we  hear  expositions  of  their 
several  precepts,  that  contain  anything  like  an  exliaus- 


238  Seed-Truths. 

tive  view  of  their  underlying  spiritual  truths  !  God's 
law  is  viewed  too  much  as  an  abstraction,  a  transcript 
of  the  divine  nature,  which  nobody  knows  anything 
about — c  the  ethical  nature  of  God/  the  public  sentiment 
of  the  universe,  which  as  a  Moloch  calls  for  blood, 
blood,  and  cannot  be  appeased  towards  sinners  till  they 
or  their  surety  suffers  a  sanguinary  death.  Such  is  the 
law  of  the  pulpit — a  mighty  antagonistic  force  to  the 
gospel,  an  enemy  to  be  eschewed  by  him  who  would 
seek  salvation  ;  whereas  the  law  of  the  Old  Testament 
and  of  the  New  is  a  unit  in  being  fulfilled  alike  and 
only  by  love,  but  weak  in  bringing  us  to  love,  from 
the  strength  of  our  hatred  and  our  sin :  this  object 
being  accomplished  only  by  the  blood  of  Christ  as  in- 
flowing life  from  God,  shed  on  Calvary,  to  convert  it 
into  power  for  this  express  purpose,  that  the  law  may 
be  fulfilled  in  us,  that  is,  the  law  of  love ;  and  that  it 
may  be  put  into  our  minds,  written  in  our  hearts,  and 
imprinted  upon  our  inward  parts.1  So  little  are  the  ten 
commandments  understood,  that  I  have  heard  earnest 
Christian  men  speak  of  them  as  done  away  in  Christ, 
mistaking  the  law  itself  for  the  mode  of  its  administra- 
tion. The  law  in  stone  is  now  the  law  in  the  heart. 

I  do  not  propose  an  exposition  of  the  second  table 
in  detail,  but  chiefly  as  showing  that  each  precept,  like 
a  sign-post,  guards  a  point  where  we  are  liable  to  go 
wrong,  and  that  it  is  alike  adapted  to  bodied  and  dis- 
embodied life.  These  two  points,  bearing  directly  on 
our  main  purpose,  will  fully  appear  as  we  consider  the 
commandments  of  the  second  table  seriatim. 

The  duty  of  honouring  parents,  and  its  reward,  are 
among  the  clearest  things  to  natural  conscience  and 
observation.2  It  is  a  general  law  of  subordination  in 

1  Heb.  viiL  10  ;  Jer.  xxxi.  33.  *  Ex.  xx.  12. 


Divine  Indwelling  in  our  Social  Relations.  259 

the  social  state.  '  Some  are,  and  must  be,  greater  than 
the  rest.'  This  subordination,  which  is  an  instinct  of 
childhood,  extends  to  those  who  divide  with  parents 
their  prerogatives,  and  prescribes  a  like  duty  to  rulers, 
teachers,  employers,  masters,  and  superiors.  And  that 
this  obligation  is  a  point  of  danger,  or  of  temptation 
and  trial  to  character,  all  experience  fully  shows. 
Are  not  children  prone  to  have  their  own  way  ?  Are 
not  nations  restive  under  authority  ?  Are  not  pupils 
often  in  open  rebellion  against  their  teachers, — appren- 
tices against  their  masters, — employees,  as  individuals 
or  trade-unions,  against  their  employers  ?  Instead  of 
rising  up  before  the  hoary  head,  are  not  the  young 
often  impertinent  to  venerable  years  ? 

The  law  is  fixed  as  a  guide-post  at  the  corner  of 
these  divergent  ways,  crying  out  for  subordination, 
promising  a  great  ensuing  good — for  it  is  the  first 
commandment  with  promise1 — and  forewarning  us, 
that  he  who  curses  father  or  mother  shall  die  the 
death.2  Who  can  imagine  the  train  of  evils  to  ensue 
without  subordination,  or  the  good  to  accrue  from  duly 
observing  it  in  all  our  relations  ?  If  the  required 
honour  is  rendered,  and  the  enjoined  social  subordina- 
tion maintained,  order  and  happiness  ensue  ;  but  if 
superiors  are  oppressive  in  their  exactions,  and  sub- 
ordinates are  rebellious,  anarchy  succeeds.  The  reward 
and  penalty  inhere  in  the  conditions  of  the  relation, 
and  are  not  created  by  enactment  any  more  than  the 
duty  itself. 

This  is  the  law  of  all  social  relations,  in  the  higher 
world  as  well  as  in  this,  as  there  are  degrees  in  glory, 
and  both  greatest  and  least  in  the  kingdom  of  God.3 

1  Eph.  vi.  2.  2  Ex.  xxi.  17. 

3  1  Cor.  xv.  40-42  j  .Matt.  v.  19,  xi.  11,  xxv.  40. 


240  Seed-  Truths. 

Pre-eminence  in  that  kingdom  is  real,  and  not  fictitious, 
as  it  often  is  in  this,  depending  on  the  power  to  serve 
or  to  impart  to  others  the  greatest  good.1  Differences 
in  the  principle  of  precedence  and  subordination  do 
not  unsettle  the  fact  or  the  accruing  duty ;  but  they 
show  the  universal  adjustment  of  the  law  to  all  social 
relation  in  the  universe,  to  '  principalities  and  powers 
in  the  heavenly  places/  as  well  as  to  those  on  earth.2 
Might  and  dominion  are  not  only  of  this  world,  but  of 
that  which  is  to  come.  It  is  a  law  that  bears  alike  on 
the  parties  concerned ;  and  parents  are  required  not 
to  provoke  their  children  to  wrath,  and  rulers  are  to 
exercise  their  functions  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord.3 

In  the  family,  this  is  the  first  duty  of  which  we  are 
cognizant,  as  in  entering  the  spiritual  kingdom  sub- 
mission to  God  is  the  first  lesson  we  learn.  To  obey 
is  better  than  sacrifice.  Can  we  wonder  that  a  precept 
so  wide-reaching,  so  necessary  to  authority  in  family, 
church,  and  state,  so  elementary  to  all  duty,  should 
have  the  first  place  in  the  second  table  ?  Honouring 
parents  includes  sustaining  them  by  moneyed  contri- 
butions in  the  helplessness  of  old  age,  as  our  Lord 
teaches ;  and  a  man  must  not  think  to  escape  this  duty 
by  consecrating  his  wealth  to  religion  or  to  charity.4 

The  sixth  commandment  is,  like  the  others,  positive 
as  well  as  negative,  requiring  us  not  only  not  to  kill, 
but  to  preserve  life,  by  sanitary  laws,  by  caring  for  the 
sick  and  infirm,  and  by  promoting  general  health, 
security,  and  contentment.8  These  duties  pertain  not 
only  to  natural,  but  to  spiritual  life  ;  and  it  forbids  us 
to  corrupt  men's  souls,  thus  exposing  them  to  the  death 

1  Mark  x.  42  ;  Luke  xxii.  25,  26.  »  Epli.  i.  21,  iii.  10. 

3  Kj.h.  vi.  \  ;  2  Siinj.  xxiii.  a.  *  Murk  vii.  10-13. 

6  Ex.  xx.  13. 


Divine  Indwelling  in  our  Social  Relations.  241 

that  never  dies,  as  well  as  to  refrain  from  whatever 
is  prejudicial  to  animal  life.  Cain  was  a  murderer  in 
the  latter  sense ;  but  Satan  was  a  murderer  from  the 
beginning,  by  swerving  from  the  truth,  and  seducing 
others,  thus  bringing  '  death  into  the  world,  and  all  our 
woe.' 1  Men  who  rejected  the  gospel  incurred  blood- 
guiltiness,  by  destroying  their  own  souls  and  endan- 
gering others ;  and  the  reason  assigned  why  '  he  that 
sheddeth  man's  blood,  by  man  shall  his  blood  be  shed/ 
is,  that  '  man  was  made  in  the  image  of  God,'  as  if 
defacing  that  image  was  the  head  and  front  of  a  mur- 
derer's act.2 

This  law,  therefore,  seemingly  altogether  a  thing  of 
the  flesh,  runs  up  into  the  infinite  and  eternal,  and 
applies  with  greater  force  to  pure  spirits,  as  embodying 
in  themselves  more  of  existence  than  we  do.  In  any 
world  where  God  has  transferred  His  image  to  a  crea- 
ture, the  law  thunders  its  maledictions  against  the 
killing,  which  consists  in  defiling  and  defacing  that 
image.  It  is  the  great  safeguard  of  life,  natural  and 
spiritual,  and  is  commensurate  in  its  claims  with  the 
moral  government  of  God. 

Nor  does  it  merely  prohibit  the  act,  but  the  state  of 
mind  from  which  it  took  its  rise ;  and  '  whoso  hateth 
his  brother  is  a  murderer.'3  All  settled  malignity  is 
murder.  To  intend  the  crime,  as  did  the  conspirators 
against  Paul's  life,4  but  fail  from  the  impossibility  of 
executing  it,  is  entered  as  murder  in  His  account  who 
searcheth  our  hearts.  So  careful  is  our  Father  in 
heaven  of  the  life  of  His  children,  that  He  required  in 
the  building  of  houses,  that  they  should  be  surrounded 
by  a  battlement,  to  prevent  a  fall  from  the  roof ;  and  if 

1  John  viii.  44.  2  Acts  xviii.  6  ;  Gen.  ix.  6. 

8  1  John  iii.  15  ;  Matt.  v.  21,  22.          *  Acts  xxiii.  13-15. 

Q 


242  Seed-Truths. 

a  man  kept  an  ox  known  to  be  dangerous,  and  the  ox 
should  kill  a  man,  both  the  owner  and  the  ox  should 
die.  If  a  person  was  found  slain  near  a  city,  its  elders 
should  be  held  responsible  for  his  death  till  they  had 
cleared  themselves  from  the  imputation.  '  For  blood 
it  defileth  the  land :  and  the  land  cannot  be  cleansed 
of  the  blood  that  is  shed  therein,  but  by  the  blood  of 
him  that  shed  it/  l 

How  necessary,  in  the  present  state  of  the  world,  is 
it  to  reduce  mines,  railway  management,  navigation  by 
steam,  and  the  whole  range  of  our  activity,  to  a  sana- 
tory police,  to  ensure  security  to  limb  and  life !  It 
is  amazing  that  a  precept  expressed  by  four  short 
words  should  cover  interests  so  vast,  so  universal,  so 
enduring. 

It  is  one  of  the  anomalies  of  human  nature,  that 
there  should  be  two  ways  in  a  case  like  this — to  create 
temptation,  and  to  require  a  guide-post  to  point  out  the 
one  in  which  we  ought  to  walk.  How  can  one  enter- 
tain a  hostile  intent  against  another's  life  ?  Impossible 
as  it  may  seem,  murder  has  its  charms  to  growing  mul- 
titudes, even  under  the  light  of  our  civilisation,  to  pro- 
voke from  a  distinguished  essayist  a  treatise  on  '  Murder 
as  a  fine  art.'  Few  periods  have  evinced  more  hellish 
skill  in  the  practice  of  it  than  our  own.  To  say  nothing 
of  the  multitude  of  private  murders,  what  an  amount  of 
slaughter  in  wars  of  revenge,  of  ambition,  of  conquest, 
and  from  the  lust  of  territorial  extension  !  Six  millions 
are  said  to  have  perished  in  the  Bonapartean  wars  of  a 
past  age ;  and  this  is  but  an  item  of  the  sacrifices  made 
to  that  Moloch  of  the  balance  of  power  in  Europe ; 
while  in  America  hundreds  of  thousands  have  fallen 
in  the  endeavour  to  perpetuate  the  slavery  of  f<»ur 

1  Deut  xxii.  8 ;  Ex.  xxi.  21  ;  Deut.  xxi.  1-9;  Num.  xxxv.  33. 


Divine  Indwelling  in  our  Social  Relations.  243 

millions  of  people.  Who  will  say  that  Infinite  Wisdom 
uttered  an  unnecessary  interdict  in  proclaiming,  in  a 
voice  of  thunder,  from  the  rugged  peaks  of  Sinai, 
'  Thou  shalt  not  kill  ?' 

The  seventh  commandment,  '  Thou  shalt  not  commit 
adultery/1  reflects  also  a  spiritual  as  well  as  a  natural 
truth.  As  it  bears  extensively  on  the  interests  of  this 
life,  so  of  our  relations  to  a  higher  world,  where  '  the 
bride,  the  Lamb's  wife/  enjoys  high  and  holy  com- 
munion with  Him  by  whom  she  has  been  redeemed 
and  presented  without  spot  to  God.2 

Sex  itself,  out  of  which  marriage  takes  its  rise, 
involves  the  radical  truth  of  one  thing  complemented 
by  another, — love  by  truth — will  by  understanding — 
body  by  soul — soul  by  spirit — Christ  by  His  church, 
His  body,  the  complement  or  fulness  of  Him  who 
filleth  all  in  all.3  As  it  is  through  the  church  that 
Christ  acts  upon  this  world  to  restore  it  to  God,  how 
is  He  complete  as  a  Saviour  without  it  ?  On  this  • 
mysterious  law, — seen  in  the  sunbeams,  where  light  is 
complemented  by  heat, — seen  in  the  meanest  plants, 
seen  in  everything,  and  most  of  all  in  the  spiritual 
coalescence  of  the  soul  with  God, — on  this  all-pervading 
principle  the  apostle  bases  his  doctrine  of  marriage. 
This  is  a  great  mystery,  that  two  should  be  one ;  but 
I  am  speaking  of  Christ  and  His  church.4  Marriage, 
in  our  earthly  views  of  it,  never  comes  fully  up  to  its 
prototype  in  the  spiritual  universe. 

The  interdict  of  the  seventh  commandment  bears 
alike  upon  our  mortal  and  immortal  relations.  It  pro- 
hibits idolatry ;  it  condemns  wandering  affections ;  it 
enjoins  purity  of  heart,  that  thus  we  may  see  God. 

1  Ex.  xx.  14.  2  Rev.  xix.  7,  xxi.  9  ;  Eph.  v.  27. 

»  Eph.  i.  23.  4  Eph.  v.  32. 


244  Seed-Truths. 

Our  union  with  God  is  not  institutional,  not  the  result 
of  ceremonial  vows,  though  vows  may  be  an  expression 
of  it;  but  the  tie  of  supreme  devotion  of  heart,  as 
affection  must  precede  marriage  to  render  it  valid.  Our 
marriages  expire  at  death,  but  our  union  with  God  is 
eternal 

As  we  said  in  our  last  chapter,  the  seventh  com- 
mandment does  not  forbid,  it  sanctifies  the  union  of 
the  sexes,  by  imposing  the  restraints  which  ensure  the 
happiness  of  the  parties,  the  training  of  children,  and 
beneficent  results  to  general  society.  Hence  arise  the 
parental  and  filial  affections ;  thence  brotherly  and 
sisterly  love ;  thence  the  endearments  of  home ;  and  • 
thence  the  care  of  the  sick  and  aged  in  the  bosom  of 
affection,  to  smooth  their  pathway  to  the  grave.  With 
singular  accuracy  of  inspired  discernment,  the  opposite 
of  marriage  in  the  intercourse  of  the  sexes  is  spoken 
of  as  a  state  of  estrangement ;  '  the  stranger/  '  strange 
woman/  or  '  women,'  denoting  separation  from  family, 
home,  children,  and  domestic  ties, — those  cast  off  from 
the  social  system  amid  the  loathing  of  kindred,  and  be- 
coming the  bane  of  virtue  and  order.1  States  derive 
their  stability  from  the  exclusiveness  of  the  family  ties 
— one  man  with  one  woman,  till  death  parts  them,  as 
our  Lord  teaches  ;a  and  they  cannot  long  survive  the 
unsettling  of  this  relation.  Eome  laid  the  foundation  of 
her  power  while  her  matrons  were  in  honour ;  she  lost 
it  when  concubinage  succeeded  to  their  place. 

The  seventh  commandment  is  interpreted  by  our 
Lord  to  prohibit  the  unchaste  desires  in  which  the 
violations  of  it  originate ;  which  is  a  further  evidence 
that  the  second  table,  like  the  first,  is  primarily  an 

1  Prov.  ii.  16  ;  1  Kings  xi  1 ;  Prov.  xxii.  14,  xxiil  27. 
•  Matt  xix.  6. 


Divine  Indwelling  in  our  Social  Relations.  245 

interior  force,  and  not  a  regulator  of  conduct  imposed 
from  without.  The  apostle  also  takes  a  like  view  of 
lasciviousness,  as  a  power  within  dominating  the  man, 
and  precipitating  him  upon  '  uncleanness  with  all  greedi- 
ness.' *  That  this  is  a  point  of  temptation,  and  needing 
such  a  law  to  warn  us  against  the  house  '  where  the 
dead  are,  and  her  guests  are  in  the  depths  of  hell/  who 
will  doubt  ? 

Property  rights  are  inseparable  from  personality. 
In  whatever  state  or  world  a  being  exists  as  a  personal 
entity — a  responsible  individuality — his  intellect,  his 
power  to  give  or  receive  happiness,  to  serve  or  be 
served,  and  all  within  the  range  of  his  voluntary 
agency,  are  his  to  use  or  refuse,  as  much  as  any  mate- 
rial possession.  If  another  uses  what  is  his,  it  must 
be  by  his  consent,  or  it  is  stealing.  May  not  gifts 
of  mind  be  appropriated  without  the  consent  of  the 
owner,  as  well  as  of  money  ?  Is  not  many  a  slave, 
without  money,  robbed  of  his  ingenuity  by  having  it 
coerced  into  another's  service,  and  many  a  man  of  in- 
tellect compelled  to  use  his  gifts  to  enrich  others  rather 
than  himself  ?  Locks  and  keys  may  be  unknown  in 
heaven,  but  not  so  of  property  rights. 

The  eighth  commandment — '  Thou  shalt  not  steal ' 2 
— is  therefore  equally  comprehensive  with  the  others. 
Stealing  is  depriving  another  of  his  property  without 
his  consent,  and  becomes  robbery  when  it  is  done  by 
violence  or  fraud,  when  the  consent  is  obtained  on 
false  pretences.  When  it  is  the  result  of  political 
power,  it  is  despotism.  It  is  coercing  subordinates 
into  subserviency,  to  build  up  privilege  on  their  blood, 
bones,  and  sinews.  This  is  the  worst  of  all  stealing, 
because  it  robs  a  man  of  himself,  under  various  institu- 

i  Matt.  v.  28  ;  Epli.  iv.  19,  29.  »  Ex.  xx.  15. 


246  Seed-Trut7is. 

tional  powers  and  pretexts ;  by  education  and  habits 
conducted  and  formed  under  a  social  incubus, — depriv- 
ing millions  of  their  right  by  taking  away  their  sense 
of  it  or  power  to  assert  it, — dooming  the  many  to  a 
poverty  that  wrecks  their  manhood,  to  ruin  the  few 
by  luxury  and  idleness.  Alas  for  the  founders  of 
empire,  that  they  did  their  work  with  so  little  regard 
to  the  voice  of  God  speaking  from  Sinai ! 

Cicero  reasons  on  the  morals  of  trade  in  a  way 
that  might  prove  edifying  to  our  times.  He  supposes 
the  case"  of  a  ship  from  Alexandria,  loaded  with  wheat, 
arriving  at  Rhodes  in  a  time  of  famine,  with  the  know- 
ledge that  other  ships  would  soon  come  in  with  like 
cargoes  to  glut  the  market ;  and  the  question  is,  Would 
her  crew  be  bound  to  make  known  this  fact,  or  could 
they  with  impunity  accept  famine  prices  for  their  own 
cargo?  He  quotes  an  old  Greek  moralist  as  denying 
their  right  to  do  it.  Would  we  in  our  times  deny  that 
right  ?  Says  an  old  catechism  :  '  The  eighth  command- 
ment requires  the  lawful  procuring  and  furthering  the 
wealth  and  outward  estate  of  ourselves  and  others.' 
Another  still  says :  '  It  commandeth  us  to  beguile  no 
man,  to  occupy  no  unlawful  wares,  to  envy  no  man  his 
wealth,  and  to  think  nothing  profitable  that  either  is 
not  just,  or  differeth  from  right  or  honesty.' 

This  law  is  also  violated,  by  depriving  of  their  just 
expectations  those  who  are  dependent  upon  us,  through 
idleness,  prodigality,  gaming,  or  self-indulgence.  Parents 
who  thus  beggar  their  children,  husbands  or  wives  \vli<> 
thus  abuse  their  power  over  each  other,  bringing  ruin 
by  extravagance,  are  violators  of  God's  law  of  pi<>] 
A  wife  has  no  right  to  live  beyond  her  husband's 
means,  nor  a  husband  and  father  to  dispose  of  his  in- 
come in  disregard  of  the  claims  of  his  family.  In  all 


Divine  Indwelling  in  our  Social  Relations.  247 

these  relations  we  have  a  mutual  property  in  each 
other ;  and  in  the  sense  of  God's  law,  it  is  stealing  to 
disregard  each  other's  claims.  We  condemn  stealing 
in  the  ordinary  sense,  and  yet  we  perhaps  practise  it 
in  subtler  and  more  fatal  methods.  By  idleness  and 
prodigality,  how  many  paupers  are  thrown  upon  the 
public  charge !  How  many  are  robbed  of  education 
and  position  !  How  many  wrecked  by  gambling  !  How 
much  fraud  is  committed  by  the  falsification  of  weights 
and  measures,  by  misrepresentations  in  buying  and 
selling,  by  monopolizing  the  market  to  raise  the  price 
of  articles  on  which  the  masses  subsist,  and  other 
ways  of  doing  by  others  just  as  we  would  not  have 
them  do  by  us  ! 1 

This  law  involves  the  positive  as  well  as  the  nega- 
tive, binding  us  to  promote  the  wealth  of  others,  to  seek 
not  our  own  good  exclusively,  but  that  of  our  neigh- 
bour,2 and  to  refrain  from  all  occupations  which  do  not 
afford  to  society  an  equivalent  for  what  we  take. 
That  we  need  the  admonition  of  such  a  precept  always 
before  us,  as  a  guide  to  justice,  truth,  and  right  in 
every  transaction  of  life,  is  clear  from  all  the  experi- 
ences of  the  commercial  world.  Does  not  the  word 
from  Sinai — '  Thou  shalt  not  steal ' — meet  a  great  ne- 
cessity, and  cover  infinite  and  eternal  interests  ? 

Nor  is  the  duty  of  truth-speaking  less  pervading  or 
significant.  It  covers  the  whole  extent  of  our  powers 
of  communication,  by  speech,  by  gesture,  by  deeds,  or 
even  of  our  not  speaking  or  doing  with  intent  to  de- 
ceive. In  character,  what  is  more  beautiful  than  truth 
and  sincerity  ? — than  lying,  what  more  odious  ?  What 
insult  is  sooner  avenged  than  the  given  lie  ?  Men 
most  false  in  themselves  still  honour  truth,  as  Balaam 
1  Matt.  vii.  12.  •  1  Cor.  x.  24. 


248  Seed-Truths. 

with  criminal  intent  could  exclaim,  '  Must  I  not  take 
heed,  and  speak  that  which  the  Lord  hath  put  in  my 
mouth?'1 

Truth  is  of  God  and  heaven,  and  the  basis  of  all 
true  happiness.  He  that  came  from  God  brought  with 
Him  '  grace  and  truth.'  2  '  Thou  shalt  not  bear  false 
witness  against  thy  neighbour,' 3  is  a  precept  which 
aims  at  bringing  us  up  to  a  heavenly  standard,  that 
God's  will  may  be  done  here  as  there.  Every  depar- 
ture from  truth  is  an  assault  upon  the  God  of  truth, 
and  upon  a  chief  constituent  of  social  happiness. 
Lying  is  false  witness  to,  about,  or  against  a  neighbour, 
because  it  is  a  communication  or  impression  for  some- 
body to  receive,  and  from  its  nature  is  social,  not 
solitary.  When  it  is  about  a  neighbour,  it  is  slander 
— the  most  cruel  of  all  personal  assaults. 

'  Good  name,  in  man  and  woman,  dear  my  lord, 
Is  the  immediate  jewel  of  their  souls. 

"Who  steals  my  purse,  steals  trash  ;  'tis  something — nothing: 
'Twos  mine,  'tis  his,  and  has  been  slave  to  thousands ; 
But  he  that  niches  from  me  my  good  name, 
Robs  me  of  that  which  not  enriches  him, 
And  makes  me  poor  indeed.'4 

How  often  have  the  roses  of  health  faded  from  the 
cheek  of  a  victim  of  scandal,  when  the  cause  was  not 
suspected !  The  poison  is  more  dangerous  and  deadly, 
for  the  stealthy  manner  in  which  it  is  infused.  How 
often  have  nations  been  convulsed  and  deluged  in 
blood  by  lying  diplomacy  I 

Detraction  in  its  mildest  form ;  telling  what  is  true 
of  another,  with  intent  to  injure  him ;  keeping  back  the 
truth,  to  avoid  doing  him  a  service ;  disparaging  in- 
nuendoes ;  dubious  hints  to  excite  suspicion ;  retailing 

*  Num.  xxiii.  12.  «Johni.  17. 

•  Ex.  xx.  16.  *  Ollu-ilv,  Act  iii.  Sc.  3. 


Divine  Indwelling  in  our  Social  Relations.  249 

another's  scandal,  under  the  disclaimer  of  not  believing 
it ;  interlarding  conversation  with  what  will  draw  from 
others  words  of  detraction,  and  thus  virtually  saying, 
'Report,  and  we  will  report  it;'1 — these  are  some  of 
the  innumerable  practices  in  our  complicated  civilisa- 
tion against  which  Sinai  levels  its  thunders — '  Thou 
shalt  not  bear  false  witness  against  thy  neighbour/ 
'  Better  be  a  deaf  man  who  heard  not.  and  in  whose 
mouth  are  no  reproofs/  than  deal  uncharitably  with 
another's  good  name.2 

Teaching  false  doctrines  is  wholesale  lying,  like 
poison  in  the  conduits  that  supply  a  city  with  water, 
unsettling  the  faith  of  thousands,  and  perhaps  corrupt- 
ing their  morals.  Those  who  built  up  Paganism,  Mo- 
hammedanism, and  the  Papacy,  may  be  too  numerous, 
and  spread  over  too  many  ages,  to  be  charged  person- 
ally with  the  wrong — as  a  general  malaria  can  be  traced 
to  no  particular  source — but  is  the  bane  less  deadly  ? 
Is  it  not  the  sad  entail  of  a  thousand  generations  ? 
Does  it  not  take  within  its  fell  swoop  thousands  of 
millions  of  human  beings  ? 

A  restored  law,  that  should  render  truth  the  basis 
of  personal  character  and  of  social  life,  would  preclude 
infinite  evils  from  the  human  family,  both  in  this  and 
the  world  to  come.  It  would  establish  confidence 
between  man  and  man,  give  security  to  trade,  make 
friendships  secure  and  happy,  and  inspire  the  truly 
poetical  song,  '  Surely  His  salvation  is  nigh  them  that 
fear  Him,  that  glory  may  dwell  in  our  land.  Mercy 
and  truth  are  met  together;  righteousness  and  peace 
have  kissed  each  other.  Truth  shall  spring  out  of  the 
earth,  and  righteousness  shall  drop  down  from  heaven. 
Yea,  the  Lord  will  give  that  which  is  good,  and  our 

1  Jer.  xx.  10.  2  Ps.  xxxnii.  13,  14. 


250  Seed-Truths. 

land  shall  yield  her  increase.  Righteousness  shall  go 
before  Him,  and  shall  set  us  in  the  way  of  His  steps/ l 
When  the  point  of  temptation  comes,  let  us  look  up 
and  read  what  God  has  written,  and  avoid  all  incen- 
tives to  violate  the  ninth  commandment. 

The  law  from  Sinai  is  the  first  code  to  aim  at  dis- 
ciplined desires.  All  other  legislation  contents  itself 
with  external  acts.  But  when  the  full  force  of  the 
current  remains,  what  avails  to  dam  it  at  one  point, 
merely  to  have  it  break  out  in  another  ?  The  current 
itself  must  be  absorbed  or  turned  in  the  direction  of 
beneficence  and  truth,  or  nothing  is  gained,  except  the 
semblance  of  security.  Disciplined  desires,  content- 
ment with  what  we  have  in  hand  or  in  prospect — this 
is  the  end  of  the  last  of  the  commandments :  '  Thou 
shalt  not  covet.' 2 

It  bears  upon  every  other  precept  in  the  decalogue, 
by  promoting  the  state  of  mind  which  ensures  obe- 
dience. The  others  may  be  merely  externally  obeyed, 
but  this  one  never.  It  takes  effect  directly  on  the  in- 
ternal man ;  and  there  is  no  obedience  which  does  not 
put  that  in  a  state  of  moderated  and  truthful  desire. 
It  anticipates  in  law  what  is  taught  in  the  Gospel, '  Ye 
must  be  born  again.' 3  No  man  can  have  a  subdued 
and  chastened  spiritual  life  without  God's  restored 
dominion  in  his  soul,  or  Christ  dwelling  in  him  by 
faith.4  By  this  we  learn,  in  whatever  situation  we  are, 
therewith  to  be  content.6  This  new  life  in  God  is  the 
only  fulfilment  of  the  last  commandment 

Men  may  exercise  over  themselves  a  philosophical 
restraint,  may  study  quietude  from  scliish  motives, 
may  stoically  accept  pain  as  coolly  as  pleasure,  may 

1  I  Vs.  Ixxxv.  9-13.  «  Ex.  xx.  17.  3  J.,lm  iii.  8. 

4  fyli.  iii.  17.  6  I'liil.  iv.  11  ;  2  Cor.  vii.  4. 


Divine  Indwelling  in  our  Social  Relations.  251 

restrain  exorbitant  desires  which  they  cannot  gratify 
because  they  are  annoying,  may  repress  the  emotions  of 
anxiety  and  fear,  may  have  a  constitutional  hardihood 
that  carries  them  through  trying  scenes  with  much 
equanimity,  and  in  many  ways  simulate  the  condition 
contemplated  by  the  tenth  commandment.  But  the 
soul  is  a  fountain  of  desires,  the  jets  of  which  gush 
up ;  and  there  is  no  way  of  dealing  with  them,  but 
to  find  a  direction  in  which  they  may  be  allowed  full 
scope.  This  is  God's  way  of  curing  covetousness, 
changing  the  bent  of  desire  towards  all  that  is  pure, 
and  good,  and  holy.  And  a  soul  in  that  state  is  in  no 
danger  of  coveting  his  neighbour's  house,  his  neigh- 
bour's wife,  his  neighbour's  man-servant  or  maid-ser- 
vant, nor  his  ox  or  ass,  nor  anything  that  is  his 
neighbour's.  How  should  he,  when  his  resources  of 
happiness  are  already  complete  ? 

It  is  on  the  basis  of  this  spiritual  fulness  that  many 
of  the  exhortations  of  the  gospel  are  rendered  possible, 
and  escape  being  positively  ridiculous,  such  as,  '  Eejoice 
evermore,'  '  Be  careful  for  nothing,'  '  Take  no  thought 
for  the  morrow,'  and  the  like,  which,  on  any  other 
ground,  would  be  like  telling  a  man  not  to  feel  under 
the  surgeon's  knife.1  The  idea  of  Eenan,  that  such 
teaching  is  a  mere  reflection  of  the  simplicity  and 
carelessness  of  Galilean  life,  is  contradicted  by  all  ex- 
perience of  shepherds  and  shepherdesses,  or  men  in  a 
rural  state,  whose  discontent  is  often  quite  equal  to 
that  of  men  in  cities  or  in  more  refined  circles.  It  is 
not  in  the  outer  life  that  the  exhortation  against  care- 
fulness takes  effect,  but  in  such  an  absorption  in  divine 
love,  and  such  a  hold  on  heaven,  as  neutralizes  our 
carking  worldly  cares,  and  gives  us  infinite  repose  in 

1  Phil.  iv.  4-7  ;  Matt,  vi.  25. 


252  Seed-  Truths. 

God.  It  is  in  a  faith  overcoming  the  world,  not  in  a 
philosophy  that  silences  the  clamours  of  sense;  and 
hence  it  is,  that  the  greatest  delectation  is  sometimes 
seen  in  the  midst  of  painful  disease  and  inevitable 
death. 

This  cursory  view  of  the  commandments  is  suffi- 
cient to  show  us  how  remote  their  proper  seat  is  from 
all  other  codes,  —  the  sanctum  sanctorum  of  human 
nature,  thence  throwing  out  their  influence  over  the 
whole  life ;  how  central  their  spirit  is  to  the  gospel,  as 
their  letter  was  to  the  Mosaic  institutes ;  how  appli- 
cable to  all  worlds  of  accountable  agency;  how  ad- 
monitory against  all  the  ways  of  evil  towards  which 
we  are  tempted;  and  how  complete  a  summary  they 
contain  of  all  piety  and  virtue. 


CHAPTER    XXI. 

THE  THEOCRATIC  AS  A  TYPE  OF  THE  SPIRITUAL  MAN. 

BEFORE  dismissing  the  subject  of  law,  we  will  con- 
sider the  character  of  the  man  who  outwardly 
lived  up  to  its  requirements.  He  stood  as  an  effigy  of 
what  '  grace,  reigning  through  righteousness  unto  eter- 
nal life  by  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord/  now  accomplishes 
upon  a  truly  believing  soul.1  Such  an  one  is  in  spirit 
all  that  the  theocratic  man  was  in  form.  God  rules  in 
his  soul;  the  kingdom  of  heaven  there  has  its  seat  ;2  and 
in  him  is  realized  the-  original  plan  of  human  nature  as 
actuated  by  the  inbreathed  divinity.3  This  is  redemp- 
tion, this  is  seeking  and  saving  that  which  was  lost.4 

As  the  lost  state  consists  in  being  ruled  by  fleshly 
impulses  and  natural  ideas  to  the  extent  of  incapaci- 
tating men  for  conceiving  what  it  is  to  be  ruled  by  the 
Spirit  of  God,  it  pleased  the  Lord  to  present  the  idea 
to  them  in  the  theocratic  man,  who  stood  related  to 
the  spiritual  reality  as  the  mould  to  the  implement 
to  which  it  gives  form.  The  mould,  though  of  base 
material,  and  unfit  for  use  except  as  a  mould,  is  care- 
fully polished,  clear  in  outline,  and  perhaps  a  more  per- 
fect ideal  than  the  implement  which  it  shapes.  So  the 
theocratic  Israelite,  though  a  mere  thing  of  form  and 
ceremony,  may  furnish  a  more  perfect  type  of  what  we 
ought  to  be  as  spiritual  men,  than  doctrine,  or  than  any 
other  example  except  Christ  Himself.  Christ  alone 
1Rom.v.  21.  2  Lukexvii.  21.  3Gen.  ii.7.  4  Matt.xviii.il. 

253 


254  Seed-  Truths. 

fulfilled  the  law-ideal,  in  His  perfect  subordination  in 
all  things  to  the  will  of  the  Father  who  sent ,  Him.1 
The  theocratic  man  was  all  outline,  and  could  easily 
be  defined  ;  but  believers  are  often  a  rough  casting, 
though  of  the  genuine  stuff.  'Art  thou  a  master  in 
Israel,  and  knowest  not  these  things  ?  '2  said  Jesus  to 
one  of  the  best  characters  formed  by  the  law  ;  showing 
how  totally  ignorant  he  was  of  the  true  spirit  and  in- 
tent of  his  own  ceremonial  observances.  He  was  a 
good  model,  but  useless  as  an  organ  of  spiritual  power. 
The  Jews  who  were  most  exact  in  observing  their  law, 
were  the  greatest  enemies  of  Him  who  was  the  sole 
exemplar  of  its  spirit  and  power. 

The  theocratic  man  acknowledged  God's  absolute 
property  in  his  person  and  inheritance,  by  paying  yearly 
his  half-shekel  of  ransom  money,  and  a  tenth  of  his 
proceeds.3  This  was  done  with  the  significant  formu- 
lary, '  A.  Syrian  ready  to  perish  was  my  father,'  and 
1  he  went  down  into  Egypt,  where  he  endured  hard  bon- 
dage ;'  and  '  the  Lord  brought  us  forth  with  a  mighty 
hand.'  '  And,  behold,  I  have  brought,  the  first-fruits  of 
the  land  which  Thou,  0  Lord,  hast  given  me.'4  Thus 
his  Syrian  forefathers  and  their  descendants  were  con- 
ceded as  owing  their  preservation  to  God ;  his  half- 
shekel  was  the  ransom  money  of  a  forfeited  life ;  and 
his  very  possessions  were  not  his  own,  but  the  property 
of  Jehovah,  to  whom  the  annual  rental  was  due,  and 
served  as  a  perpetual  bond  for  his  allegiance.  And  the 
captivity  of  Israel  was  ascribed  to  their  unfaithfulness 
to  the  terms  on  which  they  held  their  land,  in  not 
allowing  it  the  rest  of  its  Sabbath ;  and  thus,  by  cruel 

*  John  iv.  34,  vi.  38,  xvii.  4  ;  Isa.  zlii.  21  ;  Matt.  v.  17. 

•  .Tohn  iii.  10.  3  Ex.  xxx.  12,  15. 
4  Deut.  xivi.  6-11,  xxviL  30. 


The  Theocratic  as  a  Tjpc  of  Spiritual  Man.  255 

bondage  for  seventy  years  in  Babylon,  they  were 
brought  to  a  sense  of  God's  absolute  right  to  them  and 
their  inheritance.1  This  was  a  great  literal  truth  to 
that  people  ;  .but  how  much  greater  in  its  spiritual 
significance  to  us,  who  have  been  redeemed  from  hell 
by  the  precious  blood  of  Christ ! 

The  theocratic  man  abstained  from  all  intercourse  in 
eating,  drinking,  or  social  communion  with  a  Gentile  ;2 
would  not  buy  meat  in  a  heathen  market,  lest  it  should 
be  unclean,  or  had  been  offered  to  an  idol;  and  thus 
he  kept  himself  from  all  ceremonial  pollution.3  If  by 
any  means  he  had  become  polluted,  he  instantly  re- 
sorted to  the  required  sacrifices  to  set  himself  right  with 
his  law.4  He  was  a  constant  and  earnest  student  of 
the  Old  Testament  Scriptures,  and  a  man  every  way 
actuated  by  his  religion  in  the  minutest  affairs  of  life. 
No  nation  on  earth  could  know  a  true  Jew  without 
knowing  him  as  a  Jew,  because  he  carried  with  him 
the  mark  of  his  religion  wherever  he  went,  and  made 
it  conspicuous  in  all  his  active  life.  The  Eoman  his- 
torians 5  speak  of  him  as  distinguishable  in  the  impe- 
rial city  for  his  religion,  as  the  negro  for  his  sable 
skin  or  woolly  head.  Is  this  no  lesson  to  us  to  come 
out  of  the  world  and  be  separate,  and  touch  not  the 
unclean  thing  ?  Must  there  not  be  always,  in  every 
place,  and  among  all  people,  a  difference,  obvious  and 
unmistakeable,  between  a  man  ruled  by  heaven  and 
those  who  are  ruled  by  earth  ?6  The  Jewish  mode  of 

Lev.  xxvi.  34  ;  2  Chron.  xxxvi.  21. 

'  They  eat  and  lodge  with  one  another  only. ' — Tacitus,  Book  v.  ch.  v. 
1  Cor.  x.  25-28  ;  Rom.  xiv.  2,  3,  15. 
Lev.  v.  1-10. 

'  Whatever  is  held  sacred  by  the  Romans,  with  the  Jews  is  pro- 
fane.'— Tacitus,  Bonk  v.  ch.  iv. 
6  2  Cor.  vi.  "*7  :   Rev.  xviii.  4. 


256  Seed- Truths. 

showing  devotion  to  Jehovah  was  the  outward  mould 
into  which  our  spirit  is  to  be  cast,  not  with  perishable, 
but  imperishable  materials.  Our  heart  devotion  to  the 
divine  love  which  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law  must  ever 
be  in  the  ascendant,  to  make  our  religion  the  ruling 
power;  and  so  far  as  we  fail  therein,  our  sacrifice  of 
repentance  and  our  faith  in  atoning  blood  must  be  re- 
sorted to,  to  set  us  right  with  God.  That  we  draw  our 
life  from  Him,  must  be  so  clear  a  fact,  that  the  world 
shall  '  take  knowledge  of  us,  that  we  have  been  with 
Jesus.'1 

Our  religious  terms  are  chiefly  derived  from  what 
pertained  to  this  theocratic  man.  We  are  '  pardoned,' 
not  simply  in  the  sense  of  being  exempted  from  punish- 
ment, but  of  being  restored  to  true  holiness,  as  he  was 
by  sacrifice  to  ceremonial  purity.  A  sacrifice  that  did 
not  restore  him  thus  was  unavailing;  as  also  is  the 
death  of  Christ,  if  it  does  not  result  in  the  setting  up 
of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  in  our  souls.  As  our  holi- 
ness was  the  object  of  His  death,  how  is  it  to  succeed 
so  far  as  we  live  under  the  dominion  of  the  flesh  ? 
There  remaineth  no  more  sacrifice  for  sins  to  those 
who  know  the  truth,  but  will  not  live  under  its  ruling.3 
Sin  and  punishment  being  inseparable,  God's  pardon 
in  cancelling  the  one  destroys  the  other,  and  never,  like 
ours,  releases  a  man  from  prison  to  send  him  out  a  cri- 
minal the  same  as  at  first.  It  removes  the  punishment 
by  taking  away  the  love  of  sinning.  Herein  is  seen 
the  efficacy  of  Christ's  death,  and  not  otherwise.  Cere- 
monial and  human  pardons  leave  the  criminal  as  he 
was  before ;  God's  restores  him  to  the  obedience  of 
faith.8 

1  Jer.  vi.  27  ;  1  Pet  L  7-9 ;  Acts  iv.  18. 
*  Heb.  x.  20.  3  Hum.  i.  5. 


The  Theocratic  as  a  Type  of  Spiritual  Man.  257 

So  of  justification :  it  is  to  become  just  and  right 
with  God,  by  faith  working  with  love  as  a  power  to 
make  us  what  we  are  declared  to  be,  or  what  we  actu- 
ally ought  to  be,  through  the  imparted  life  from  Christ. 
God  never  accepts  as  just  one  who  does  not  fulfil  the 
righteousness  of  the  law  by  walking,  not  after  the  flesh, 
but  after  the  Spirit.  No  sacrifice  can  avail  to  his  jus- 
tification which  does  not  make  him  a  spiritual  man. 
'  The  just  shall  live  by  faith!  as  a  power  doing  all  for 
him  that  sight  did  for  Adam  in  his  innocency,  so  far 
at  least  as  the  ruling  power  in  his  soul  is  concerned.1 
The  actual  dominion  over  us  to  which  Christ  succeeds 
when  we  receive  Him  by  faith,  is  the  substance  of  which 
all  other  justification  is  shadow.  It  is  '  the  righteous- 
ness of  God  by  faith,'  or  that  we  take  hold  of,  enjoy, 
and  practise,  when  we  truly  'believe  to  the  saving  of 
our  souls/  As  the  sacrifice  under  the  law  could  not 
avail  to  justify  a  delinquent  Israelite,  unless  he  brought 
it  to  the  priest,  and  was  a  party  in  offering  it,  no  more 
can  that  of  Christ  to  one  who  does  not  accept  the  Holy 
Spirit's  ruling  in  his  soul.2  The  work  of  making  sin- 
ners just  and  right  with  God  is  no  abstraction  of  law ; 
but  a  concrete  and  experimental  fact  of  the  life,  lifting 
the  soul  to  all  that  is  good,  and  pure,  and  holy.  The 
motions  of  sin  in  the  members  are  not  indeed  dead, 
nor  are  we  beyond  Satan's  fiery  darts  ;  but  our  security 
is  in  continuing  practically  in  Christ,  '  walking  not 
after  the  flesh,  but  after  the  Spirit,'  and  then  we  shall 
have  '  no  condemnation.' 3  Justification  stands  related 
to  sanctification,  as  the  child  to  the  man ;  being  com- 
plete in  all  his  members,  but  not  yet  grown  to  '  the 
measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fulness  of  Christ.'4 

1  Heb.  ii.  4  ;  Rom.  i.  17  ;  Gal.  iii.  11  ;  Heb.  x.  38. 
8  Horn.  iii.  22  ;  Heb.  x.  39.          3  Rom.  viii.  1.         *  Epli.  iv.  13. 

R 


258  Seed-  Truths. 

The  law  of  Moses,  as  we  have  seen,  legislates  in  re- 
ference to  thoughts,  feelings,  and  motives — ground  im- 
approached  by  any  civil  code — but  without  the  power 
of  doing  more  than  convince  us  how  wrong  we  are  to 
the  very  core  of  our  being ;  but  the  gospel  comes  to 
realize  the  end  and  purpose  of  this  stringent  legislation. 
It  is  a  power  to  cleanse  the  sanctuary  of  the  soul, 
'  that  Christ  may  dwell  in  our  hearts  by  faith/  and 
that  we  '  may  be  filled  with  all  the  fulness  of  God.' l 
The  theocracy  was  contrived  with  reference  to  restoring 
this  lost  truth  of  an  indwelling  God,  doing  it  at  first 
in  effigy,  to  prepare  for  the  substance  in  them  that  be- 
lieve in  Jesus.  It  was  a  vast  polity  controlling  every 
minutia  of  a  man's  life ;  and  yet  having  no  head  or 
sovereign,  except  the  Invisible  God,  ruling  from  the 
hidden  recesses  of  the  temple.  No  other  government 
is  like  it.  We  have  governments  ruling  by  that  ideal 
tiling  called  a  constitution,  which,  as  the  supreme  law 
of  the  land,  distributes  its  powers  among  those  who  are 
sworn  to  carry  out  its  provisions.  Thus  in  England, 
from  the  Queen  to  the  constable,  all  rule  by  an  idea ; 
all  exercise  prerogatives  not  personal  to  themselves, 
but  in  virtue  of  the  constitution  or  the  nation.  Not 
so  in  Israel ;  all  power  there  centred  in  a  personal 
God  ruling  from  the  .mercy-seat.  It  was  a  divine 
autocracy,  and  yet  administered  according  to  the  cove- 
nant entered  into  between  God  and  the  people.  There 
was  no  sharer  in  the  throne — no  successor;  but  His 
prerogatives  were  eternal :  no  cabinet  of  ministers  ;  no 
counsellors  of  state ;  all  authority  inhering  in  the  per- 
sonal God.  His  behests  had  no  other  reason  but  '  I 
am  the  Lord.'2  His  moral  code  is  grounded  in  His 

i  Eph.  iii.  17-19. 

*  Ler.  xviii.  5,  xix.  2 ;  Ex.  xx.  2  ;-Isa.  xli.  4,  xlix.  7. 


The  Theocratic  as  a  Type  of  Spiritual  Man.  259 

right  to  rule  us.  So  far  as  prophets,  priests,  or  kings 
were  called  into  His  service,  it  was  by  His  appoint- 
ment, and  to  exercise  only  such  prerogatives  as  He 
assigned  them. 

Our  Christian  theology  derives  thence  its  doctrine 
of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  among  men,  as  consisting 
in  'righteousness,  peace,  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost.'1 
Thence  comes  one  '  citizenship  of  the  saints  and  of  the 
household  of  God ;'  the  co-heirship  of  Jews  and  Gen- 
tiles as  children  of  Abraham  by  faith ;  our  general 
assembly  and  church  of  the  first-born  which  are  regis- 
tered in  heaven  ;  our  New  Jerusalem  coming  down 
from  God  to  rule  in  the  souls  of  men ;  and,  in  fact,  all 
the  main  features  of  the  Christian  scheme  are  cast  in 
this  theocratic  mould.2  Following  Christ  in  all  things, 
and  being  ruled  by  Him  ;  going  forth  without  the  camp, 
bearing  His  reproach ;  being  crucified  with  Him ; 
reigning  with  Him ;  regarding  ourselves  as  not  our 
own,  but  bought  with  a  price ;  redeemed  from  the  earth 
by  His  blood,  and  all  similar  ideas,  may  be  distinctly 
traced  i*>  this  old  dispensation.*3 

Things  were  indeed  tolerated  under  the  theocracy 
in  themselves  evil,  as  we  wink  at  the  foibles  of  chil- 
dren, not  as  sanctioning  them,  but  in  accommodation  to 
the  weakness  of  the  people  or  '  the  hardness  of  their 
hearts.'  On  this  principle  polygamy  was  tolerated, 
though  a  violation  of  the  original  marriage  law.4  The 
right  of  parents  to  take  the  life  of  their  children, 
which  prevailed  at  Rome  many  ages  after  Moses,  was 

1  Rom.  xiv.  17. 

2  Eph.  ii.  19,  iii.  9  ;  Rom.  ih.  30  ;  Heb.  xii.  22. 

3  Matt.  xvi.  24;  Heb.  xiii.  11-13^  Kom.  v.  20,  21,  viii.  17;  Matt 
Xix.  28  ;  1  Cor.  vi.  20. 

4  Matt.  xix.  7-9  j  Gen.  ii.  22,  23. 


2  6o  Seed-  Truths. 

not  absolutely  repealed  in  the  Levitical  law,  but  only 
fenced  around  by  restraints  to  render  it  innocuous. 
The  avenger  of  blood  was  not  regarded  as  criminal  in 
taking  life  for  life  ;  but  the  cities  of  refuge  provided  a 
means  of  escape  to  the  manslayer,  with  a  view  to  a 
trial  of  his  case  before  impartial  judges.1  Thus  the 
theocracy,  though  based  upon  the  authority  of  a  per- 
sonal God,  was  one  of  adjustment  to  human  infirmity, 
and  not  a  Utopia  of  heavenly  life.  It  assimilated  into 
itself,  no  doubt,  customs  borrowed  from  Egypt,  from  the 
nomadic  tribes  of  Arabia,  as  well  as  those  descending 
from  the  patriarchs,  to  fit  itself  to  the  ideas  of  the  age 
and  the  state  of  human  progress.  The  tribal  division 
of  the  nation  and  the  authority  of  heads  of  families 
were  recognised,  though  deprived  of  their  former  sacer- 
dotal and  kingly  prerogatives.  The  priesthood  was 
confined  to  the  tribe  of  Levi ;  and  civil  authority  was 
exercised  by  judges  and  kings,  whose  authority  was 
limited  by  the  priestly  and  prophetic  offices,  which 
were  always  a  restraint  upon  royal  authority.  The 
king  could  hold  office  only  by  divine  appointment,  and 
was  restricted  in  the  costliness  and  splendour  of  court 
pageantry,  .and  was  required  to  govern  by  law, — a  pro- 
vision never  departed  from  without  entailing  calamity.* 
The  kingly  throne  was  deemed  an  anomaly,  and  conceded 
to  the  demand  of  the  people ;  though  Samuel  recorded 
his  protest  against  it,  and  God  deemed  it  a  rejection  of 
Himself  as  the  nation's  sovereign.8  This  principle  of  ac- 
commodation to  human  infirmity  is  as  conspicuous  under 
the  reign  of  grace  as  that  of  law ;  and  the  Holy  Spirit 
bestows  His  gifts  upon  persons  that  come  far  short  of 

1  Deut.  XXL  18-21 ;  Num.  xxxv.  9-34. 

»  Deut.  xvii.  14-20,  xviii.  15-22;  1  Sam.  xv.  10-3L 

»  1  Sam.  viii.  4-22. 


The  Theocratic  as  a  Type  of  Spiritual  Man.  261 

the  highest  standard  of  Christian  character,  and  upon 
organizations  that  neither  in  a  social,  civil,  nor  eccle- 
siastical point  of  view  can  be  accepted  as  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  among  men. 

Indeed,  '  they  that  are  whole  need  not  a  physician, 
but  they  that  are  sick;'  and  as  God's  mission  to  men 
is  to  heal  and  restore  them,  His  reign  is  a  perpetual 
contest  with  individual  and  organic  evil.1  Where  else 
is  the  place  of  the  physician,  but  among  the  sick  ?  The 
theocracy  was  the  ruling  of  a  personal  God,  not  over 
angelic  beings,  but  over  a  lost  race,  centring  all  power 
in  Himself,  whether  in  tolerating  evils  or  enjoining  good, 
and  extending  His  requisitions  over  the  whole  life  of 
man.2  This  is  the  original  idea :  God  ruling  us ;  the 
spirit-world  in  the  ascendant  over  the  natural ;  reason 
and  conscience  regulating  the  appetites  and  passions ; 
and  the  whole  man,  in  his  individual  and  social  condi- 
tion, in  his  inward  and  outward  life,  subject  to  heavenly 
laws.  If  the  theocratic  man  was  not  perfect,  he  was 
an  heir  of  promise,  and  his  hope  took  hold  upon  a 
brilliant  future.3  He  derived  his  blood  from  one  bom 
out  of  the  order  of  nature,  and  he  carried  in  his  flesh 
the  seal  of  his  covenant  with  God.4  His  law  was  the 
efflorescence  and  fruitage  of  the  divine  seeding  in  the 
life  of  Abraham,  constituting  a  sure  basis  for  his  great 
anticipations.  How  should  not  the  promises  which  had 
rendered  his  past  illustrious,  be  destined  to  a  still  greater 
consummation  in  the  future  ?  What  other  nation  was 
ever  founded  upon  hope,  and  for  four  thousand  years 

1  Matt.  ix.  12. 

2  Acts  xiv.  16,  xvii.  30.    God  is  here  represented  as  acting  on  a  like 
policy  of  '  winking'  at  evils  in  dealing  with  all  nations. 

3  Gen.  xii.  3;  xviii.  18  ;  Ps.  Ixxii.  17  ;  Acts  iii.  25  ;  Gal.  iii  8. 

4  (icii.  Yviii.  9— lf>_  xvii.  10. 


Gen.  xviii.  9-15,  xvii.  10. 

USIVBESIT7J 
«* 


262  Seed-Triiths. 

kept  distinct  from  all  others,  awaiting  the  fulfilment  ? 
Is  it  not  a  miracle  of  providence  ?  What  an  exact 
type  have  we  here  of  the  Christian  life,  which  is  one 
of  hope  rather  than  realization!  'We  are  saved  by 
hope ;'  and  the  Holy  Spirit  dwells  with  us  as  a  '  Spirit 
of  promise,  and  the  earnest  of  our  inheritance,  until  the 
redemption  of  the  purchased  possession,  unto  the  praise 
of  His  glory.'1 

The  theocratic  man  was  '  cut  off  from  his  people,'  if 
lie  did  not  '  afflict  his  soul '  on  the  great  day  of  atone- 
ment, if  he  acknowledged  a  strange  god,  if  he  prac- 
tised magic,  if  he  was  guilty  of  blasphemy,  if  he 
cursed  his  parents,  if  he  profaned  the  Sabbath,  if  he 
was  guilty  of  adultery,  the  same  as  if  he  kidnapped  or 
murdered.2  Death  was  the  penalty  in  all  these  cases, 
not  as  an  example  for  us  in  our  civil  legislation,  but  to 
set  forth  the  terrible  sin  and  punishment  of  him  who 
sacrifices  his  duty  to  God,  and  his  life  in  God,  to  gratify 
his  selfish  desires ;  to  conform  to  his  natural  ideas, 
instead  of  those  of  the  Spirit  that  dwelleth  in  us ;  or 
to  achieve  any  worldly  end  at  the  expense  of  glory, 
honour,  and  immortality.  The  spiritual  man  is  taught 
by  the  theocracy  that  God  is  with  him  and  in  him, 
everywhere  and  at  all  times ;  and  not  to  eat,  and  drink, 
and  do  everything  to  His  glory,  is  treason  against  His 
government.  Would  a  subject  in  the  very  audience- 
chamber  of  his  sovereign  dare  to  be  thus  unmindful 
of  him  ?  The  Jew  was  under  a  government  that  ap- 
pealed to  him  oftener,  and  in  more  ways  than  any 

1  Rom.  viii.  24 ;  Eph.  i  13,  14. 

*  Ex.  xxii.  20 ;  Lev.  xx.  5,  6 ;  Dent.  xvii.  2-5 ;  Ex.  xxii.  18  ; 
Deut.  xviii.  9-22  ;  Lev.  xix.  31,  xxiv.  15,  16  ;  Num.  xv.  32-36  ; 
Ex.  xxi.  15,  16  ;  Lev.  xx.  9  ;  Deut.  xxi  18-21  ;  Ex.  xxi.  12-14  ; 
Ueut.  xxii.  13-27,  xxiv.  17. 


The  Theocratic  as  a  Type  of  Spiritual  Man.  263 

other  on  earth.  It  pressed  upon  him  at  all  points  like 
the  ambient  air.  Stamp-duties  and  income-taxes  are 
no  such  reminders  of  the  civil  authorities  as  were  offered 
of  God's  right  by  every  foot  of  land  from  Dan  to  Beer- 
sheba.  The  people  could  not  go  out  or  come  in  with- 
out meeting  passages  of  the  law  inscribed  upon  their 
door-posts.  In  putting  on  or  taking  off  their  garments, 
they  found  them  fringed  with  reminders  of  God.  If 
in  the  house  as  families,  or  walking  abroad  as  friends, 
the  one  topic,  God  and  His  law,  was  the  subject  of 
conversation.  In  eating,  washing,  sleeping,  in  labour 
and  in  rest,  they  were  still  to  think  of  God.  And  if 
all  else  failed,  the  Sabbath  of  days,  of  weeks,  and  of 
years,  with  the  jubilee  trumpet  resounding  through  the 
land  to  arrest  the  course  of  labour,  to  cancel  debts,  to 
free  the  enslaved,  and  to  produce  a  general  overturning 
of  business  and  social  relations,  could  not  fail  of  bring- 
ing home  to  every  house  and  heart  a  sense  of  the 
mighty  force  of  law  holding  all  alike  in  its  grasp. 

'Ye  are  bought  with  a  price;  therefore  glorify  God 
in  your  body,  and  in  your  spirit,  which  are  God's,'  are 
words  enforced  by  two  thousand  years'  previous  history, 
beginning  with  Abraham  and  culminating  in  Christ's 
glorification  and  the  Spirit's  baptism.1  'What  manner 
of  persons  ought  we  to  be,  in  all  holy  conversation  and 
godliness,'  since  in  us  as  Christians  centres  all  this 
legislation !  We  are  the  chosen  generation,  the  royal 
priesthood,  the  holy  nation,  the  peculiar  people,  to  show 
forth  the  praises  of  Him  who  hath  called  us  out  of 
darkness  into  His  marvellous  light.2 

1 1  Cor.  vi.  20.  a  2  Pet.  iii.  11  j  1  Pet  ii.  9. 


9 

CHAPTER    XXII. 
GOD  BORN  OF  MAN,  THAT  MAN  MAY  BE  BORN  OF  GOD. 

AS  all  divme  laws  centring  in  the  theocratic  man 
failed  to  raise  him  from  a  fleshly  to  a  spiritual 
life,  the  question  is,  How  is  this  indispensable  thing  to 
be  done  ?  How  is  God  to  enter  through  the  closed 
gates  of  the' soul,  and  resume  His  rightful  dominion? 
How  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven  to  come  among  men  ? 
What  must  God  do,  and  what  must  we  do,  that  we 
may  be  saved  ?  The  law  raised  the  question,  but  failed 
to  answer  it,  or  to  impart  the  required  holiness, '  through 
the  weakness  of  the  -flesh,'  or  because  we  were  '  without 
strength '  to  keep  its  precepts.1  The  answer  given  by 
infinite  love  and  wisdom  we  are  now  to  consider, 
especially  in  those  points  of  view  which  bear  upon  our 
general  subject. 

Those  aspects  of  the  question  which  pertain  to  law  as 
a  transcript  of  the  Divine  Mind,  the  ethical  nature  of 
God,  or  the  public  sentiment  of  the  moral  universe, 
that  God  is  bound  to  respect  in  dealing  with  sinners, 
we  leave  to  those  who  understand  them — we  do  not. 
Of  the  laws  governing  the  Infinite  and  the  Incompre- 
hensible, the  writer  claims  to  know  nothing.  '  I  ara 
the  lord'  is  the  only  reason  He  deigns  to  give  of  His 
conduct.  And  it  is  as  unscriptural  as  it  is  unphilo- 
Bophical  to  speak  of  law  in  any  other  sense  than  as 

1  Kom.  v.  6,  viii.  8. 
Mi 


God  Born  of  Man.  265 

arising  from  the  nature  and  relation  of  creatures.  The 
laws  of  the  vegetable  and  animal  kingdoms  are  not 
things  to  be  reasoned  about  or  known  in  the  abstract, 
but  only  as  acting  through  plants  and  animals.  And 
moral  laws,  except  as  seen  in  the  nature  and  relations 
of  moral  agents,  are  to  us  a  nonentity ;  and  -I  fully  agree 
with  an  able  and  orthodox  divine  in  England,  that  to 
speak  of  them  as  a  transcript  of  God's  nature  is  an 
absurdity.  As  they  cannot  exist  without  God,  so  they 
cannot  without  creatures  to  feel  the  weight  of  the  im- 
posed obligation.1  What  the  soul  needs  to  give  it  'peace 
with  God '  is  '  faith  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ '  as  the 
restored  Divinity,  doing  for  him  all  and  more  than  open 
vision  for  a  sinless  Adam  or  for  angels,  justifying  him 
in  the  sense  of  making  him  just,  and  redeeming  him  by 
sanctifying  him  through  the  truth,  and  giving  him  the 
adoption  and  the  spirit  of  a  child  in  God's  family.2  This 
is  the  direction  which  the  whole  New  Testament  record 
takes  in  dealing  with  the  incarnation;  and  we  would 
humbly  follow  its  leading. 

Can  we  wonder  that  seed-truths  of  inspired  men 
centre  in  the  Divine  Incarnation  ?  Does  the  universe 
know  a  greater  fact  ?  God's  tally  of  the  ages  is 
different  from  ours.  Kingdoms,  conquering  armies, 
diplomatic  agencies,  and  material  progress,  elicit  no 
paeans  in  heaven ;  but  over  one  repentant  sinner  the 
angels  rejoice.3  God  marks  off  the  cycles  of  time  by 

1  Since  writing  these  sentiments,  the  following  passage  from  Dr. 
"Wardlaw's  Christian  Ethics  has  come  to  the  notice  of  the  writer  :  *  Of 
the  abstract  subsistence  of  principles  [that  is,  of  law]  independent  of  all 
"being  whatever,  we  are  incapable  of  forming  any  conception  j.nay,  the 
very  attempt  to  form  it  involves  an  immediate  contradiction.     There 
can  be  110  principles  without  mind  ;  and  to  annihilate  mind  is  to 
annihilate  principles'  (p.  240). 

2  Rom.  v.  1,  2,  viii.  15.  »  Luke  xv.  7. 


266  Seed-  Tru  ths. 

spiritual  progress.  The  patriarchal  worship  had  its 
use,  but  failed  to  extend  God's  rule  over  a  lost  race. 
It  had  no  doctrine,  no  organization,  no  separation ;  and 
therefore  succumbed  first  to  lust  and  the  flood,  and 
then  to  idolatry  and  demonism.1  Abraham  pledged  his 
race  to  Jehovah  alone,  on  the  principle  of  a  rigid 
separation  from  all  other  nations,  and  thus  began  a 
cycle  of  covenant,  to  which  the  law,  '  because  of  trans- 
gressions,' or  as  a  guilt-revealer,  was  '  added  four  hun- 
dred years  afterwards,'  to  prepare  the  way  'for  Him 
who  came  as  '  the  end  of  the  law  for  righteousness  to 
every  one  that  believeth.'  He  effects  the  death  of  the 
natural  man  upon  which  the  law  took  hold,  and  thus 
cancels  its  claims — as  the  law  of  marriage  by  the  death 
of  one  of  the  parties  is  cancelled — that  by  this  process 
a  resurrection-life  might  ensue,  the  divine  ruling  in  the 
soul, — a  result  which  the  previous  dispensations  had 
failed  to  effect.2 

Under  all  these  ages  of  ceremony  the  world  became 
darker  and  darker,  more  and  more  fleshly  and  material ; 
and  from  Malachi  to  the  birth  of  John  the  Baptist,  a 
period  of  five  hundred  years,  we  have  no  record  of 
either  miracle  or  inspiration.3  Even  heathenism  had 

>  Gen.  vi.  11,  12,  xi.  1-9.        I 

2  Gal.  iii.  17-20  ;  Rom.  vii.  6,  x.  4. 

8  The  Old  Test  iment  describes  the  Jews  as  '  stiff-necked '  and  material 
in  their  general  type  of  thought,  and  the  same  character  of  them  is 
given  in  the  New.  The  Roman  poets,  a  little  later,  speak  of  them  in 
like  manner.  'The  Jews,'  Juvenal  says,  'will  sell  you  any  dreams 
you  please  for  the  minutest  coin '  (Satire  vi.). 

•Now  the  once  hallowed  fountain,  grove,  and  fane, 
Are  let  to  Jews,  a  wretched,  wandei  IHR  train, 
Whose  wealth  Is  but  a  basket  bluffed  with  hay.' 

JUVKNAL,  Satire  111.  18. 

To  this  day  they  are  the  most  material  of  all  the  races.  Such  was  the 
nature  that  Christ  took  upon  Himself  to  redeem  it  to  holino.s  and 


God  Born  of  Man.  267 

lost  much  of  its  conservative  influence,  and  been'  suc- 
ceeded by  vice,  levity,  and  atheism.  The  first  chapter 
of  Komans  gives  a  doleful  picture  of  its  condition.1 
Little  vigour  remained  in  anything  but  Eoman  law, 
magnificence  and  its  iron-clad  legions  uniting  the  world 
in  a  one-man  power.  That  old  serpent  the  Devil  and 
Satan  exulted  in  the  completeness  and  finality  of  his 
dominion  over  man,  and  his  imps,  as  '  unclean  spirits,' 
ran  riot  with  the  people.2  . 

Such  was  the  period  of  the  Divine  Incarnation.  In 
Heaven's  account  this  is  the  central  fact  of  human  his- 
tory, and  is  so  represented  by  prophets  and  apostles, 
being  spoken  of  by  the  one  as  '  the  last  days,'  '  the 
latter  days,'  and  as  '  the  days  of  these  kings,'  alluding 
to  the  Eoman  rule,  '  the  end  of  sins/  in  the  sense  of 
cancelling  its  power  to  them  that  believe  ;3  and  by  the 
others,  that  is,  the  apostles,  it  is  spoken  of  as  '  the 
fulness  of  times,  when  God  sent  forth  His  Son/  who 
'  was  manifested  in  these  last  times,'  '  now  once  in  the 
end  of  the  world,'  '  the  ends  of  the  world  are  come,' 
'  the  fulness  of  times,' — all  centring  upon  the  incar- 
nation and  apostolic  ministry.4  Thus,  both  in  antici- 
pation and  retrospection,  among  the  inhabitants  of 
heaven  first,  and  through  them  afterwards  revealed  to 
human  thought  and  experience,  God's  union  to  man  in 
flesh,  in  order  to  unite  man  to  God  in  spirit,  is  the 
central  luminary,  irradiating  all  of  human  history 
deemed  worthy  of  the  notice  of  inspiration.  The  world 
without  it  would  be  worse  than  a  polar  winter.  The 

heaven,  as  if  success  there  must  give  Him  success  everywhere  in  recover- 
ing a  people  to  Himself  out  of  all  nations. 

1  Rom.  i.  18-32. 

2  Matt.  iv.  24 ;  Mark  ix.  38  ;  Luke  iv.  41,  ix.  1. 

3  Gen.  xlix.  1,  10;  Num.  xxiv.  14-19;  Dan.  ii.  28,  44,  ix.  24,  et  aL 

4  Gal.  iv.  4  ;  1  Pet.  i.  20  ;  Heb.  ix.  26  ;  1  Cor.  x.  11  ;  Epk  i.  10. 


268  Seed- Truths. 

heading  of  this  chapter  is  one  of  the  pithy  and  com- 
prehensive sayings  of  Augustine,  that  '  God  was  born 
of  man,  that  man  might  be  born  of  God.' 

God  in  human  flesh  leading  the  way  in  which  every 
soul  must  follow  to  reach  eternal  life,  is  another  form 
of  the  same  thought.  The  oft-repeated  words  of  Christ, 
'  Follow  me,' 1  have  a  deeper  significance  than  simple 
imitation  of  His  virtues.  What  makes  our  modern 
pulpit  so  weak  is,  that  it  is  occupied  by  so  many  men 
who  are  incapable  of  more  than  an  outside  view  of 
following  Christ,  or  who  have  no  idea  of  it  as  a  death 
of  sinful  flesh  in  order  to  a  resurrection-life  in  spirit. 
'  Taking  up  the  cross  to  follow  Christ '  does  not  mean, 
as  too  many  suppose,  doing  public  duties  or  making 
public  professions  from  which  we  shrink ;  but  it  means 
the  crucifixion  of  sin  as  our  nature  or  as  ourselves,  that 
Christ  may  live  in  us  in  place  of  self,  and  '  that  the 
life  we  live  in  the  flesh  may  be  by  the  faith  of  the 
Son  of  God,  who  loved  us  and  gave  Himself  for  us.'2 
Our  Lord  speaks  of  those  who  had  '  followed  Him  in 
the  regeneration,'  plainly  intimating  that  the  process  of 
death  to  His  flesh,  through  which  He  was  passing  to 
reach  His  resurrection  and  glorification,  was  an  example 
of  what  all  flesh,  as  a  ruling  power  in  the  soul,  must 
pass  through  in  order  to  our  reaching  a  spiritual  and 
heavenly  life.8  'For  the  suffering  of  death  He  was 
crowned  with  glory  and  honour;'  and  to  join  Him  in 
His  glory, '  sitting  on  thrones  judging  the  twelve  tribes 
of  Israel/  we  must  have  that  sort  of  '  fellowship  in  His 
sufferings  *  which  only  the  crucifixion  of  the  sin  of  our 
flesh  can  give  us.4  The  death  of  flesh  as  to  its  ruling 

1  Matt.  iv.  19,  ix.  9  ;  Mark  ii.  14  ;  Luke  v.  27,  et  aL 

*  Mutt.  xvi.  24,  x.  34 ;  Luke  xiv.  27  ;  Gal.  ii.  20. 

»  Matt.  xix.  28.  4  Heb.  ii.  9  ;  Phil.  iii.  10. 


God  Born  of  Man.  269 

is  purification  from  sin ;  and  they  who  are  in  this  sense 
dead  and  buried  with  Christ  in  a  spiritual  baptism,  are 
freed  from  sin.1  Hence  following  Christ  in  the  regene- 
ration is,  in  the  gospel  view,  sharing  with  Him  in  His 
spiritual  life  and  resurrection  glory.  He  calls  us  to 
nothing  in  which  He  does  not  lead  the  way. 

'  The  Word  was  made  flesh.'2  The  term  '  Word'  in 
this  passage  is  God,  and  the  term  '  flesh '  is  man.  The 
Word,  as  a  designation  of  God,  is  applied  to  Him  as 
ruling  in  the  temple,  His  presence  on  the  mercy-seat 
in  the  holy  of  holies  giving  name  to  it  as  '  the  Word/ 
or  '  oracle  ;'3  and  the  Jewish  rabbis  in  Chaldea  rendered 
'  Jehovah '  by  '  Word  '  in  Greek,  in  the  passage,  '  The 
Word  created  the  world,'  and  so  throughout.4  John,  in 
like  manner,  begins  his  Gospel,  '  In  the  beginning  was 
the  Word,  and  the  Word  was  with  God,  and  the  Word 
was  God.  The  same  was  in  the  beginning  with  God. 
All  things  were  made  by  Him ;  and  without  Him  was 
not  anything  made  that  was  made.'5  He  was  the 
source  of  being  and  of  life,  and  the  life  in  the  incarna- 
tion became  the  light  of  men,  to  illuminate  their  path- 
way out  of  the  darkness  of  fleshly  dominion  into  spi- 
ritual and  heavenly  light.  John  elsewhere  speaks  of 
Him  as  '  the  Word  of  life '  and  '  the  Word  of  God.'6 

The  relation  of  the  Word  both  to  God  and  to  man 
is  poetically  set  forth  in  Proverbs : 

'  When  He  prepared  the  heavens,  I  was  there  ; 
When  He  set  a  compass  on  the  face  of  the  deep  : 
When  He  gave  the  sea  His  decree, 
That  the  waters  should  not  pass  His  commandment ; 

1  Rom.  vi.  3-9.  2  John  i.  14. 

8  2  Sam.  xvi.  23  ;  1  Kings  vi.  16,  viii.  6  ;  2  Chron.  iv.  20. 
4  Gen.  i.  1.  *  John  i.  1-3. 

•  1  John  i.  1  ;  Rev.  xix.  13. 


2  70  Seed-  Truths. 

When  He  appointed  the  foundations  of  the  earth  ; 
Then  I  was  by  Him,  as  one  brought  up  with  Him.' 

Then  the  passage  closes  with  His  human  proclivities, 
thus: 

'  Rejoicing  in  the  habitable  parts  of  the  earth  ; 
And  my  delights  were  with  the  sons  of  men.'* 

Identity  with  God  and  affinity  with  man  are  in- 
cluded in  the  name  JEHOVAH;  and  it  was  He  who 
became  '  the  Seed  of  woman/  '  Great  is  the  mystery 
of  godliness.  God  was  manifest  in  the  flesh.'  It  is 
in  view  of  this  connection  of  Christ  with  the  Jehovah 
of  the  Old  Testament,  that  the  apostles  so  uniformly 
refer  the  salvation  of  believers  to  causes  beginning  in 
eternity,  but  revealed  in  time.  They  accepted  their 
Redeemer  as  one  who  had  come  to  effectuate  the  work 
of  love  on  which  He  had  been  engaged  from  the 
foundation  of  the  world ;  and  what  He  was  doing  in 
their  own  souls,  and  in  others  through  their  ministry, 
was  a  basis  of  conscious  connection  with  Him  who 
made  the  world,  and  who  is  the  dwelling-place  of  His 
people  in  all  generations.  This  connection  makes 
believers  the  elect  of  God,  the  bride,  the  Lamb's 
wife.2 

There  is  genuine  elevation  of  soul  in  one  who  has 
the  spirit  of  Christ.  He  is  a  king  and  a  priest  unto 
God.  His  name  is  written  in  heaven.  Everlasting 
purposes  of  love  centre  in  him.  He  is  honoured  with 
angelic  ministrations.  Who  can  separate  him  from 
the  love  of  Christ  ?  His  anticipations  are  as  great  as 
his  retrospections.  He  looks  for  afar  more  exceeding 
ana  eiiTiiJil  weight  of  glory.  His  election  of  God  is 
not  a  theory,  but  a  faith.  How  should  not  a  eliild 
himself  an  heir  of  all  his  father's  past  and 

•  Prov.  viii.  27-31.  f  liev.  xxi.  9. 


God  Born  of  Man.  271 

riches  and  honours  ?  This  election  is  a  thing  of  -which 
no  one  can  conceive  without  an  inward  gracious  ex- 
perience. 

But  what  was  the  .flesh  that  the  Word  was  made  ? 
What  a  world  of  reasoning  has  this  question  from  first 
to  last  elicited !  And  yet  how  could  language  or  fact 
make  it  plainer  than  inspired  pens  have  left  it  ? 
Flesh  is  man  as  a  creature  of  this  earth,  or  as  pro- 
duced out  of  the  dust  of  the  ground.  Thought,  in- 
tellect, natural  conscience,  sesthetical  taste,  the  social 
sentiments,  and  the  power  of  civil  organization,  all 
enter  as  fully  into  our  conception  of  man  in  acting 
among  the  elements  of  this  world,  as  flesh,  blood,  or 
bones,  or  as  instinct  in  animals  in  fitting  them  for  self- 
preservation.  Man  became  spiritual,  heavenly,  and 
immortal  by  the  inbreathed  divinity,  which  was  an  act 
separate  and  distinct  from  that  which  fitted  him  for 
a  merely  earthly  life.  This  was  ruled  out  when  he 
came  under  the  dominion  of  the  flesh,  and  he  became 
thenceforth  animal  and  worldly  in  all  his  proclivities, 
except  so  far  as  his  fitness  for  spiritual  life  gave  place 
to  magic,  idolatry,  and  demonism.  His  religion  was 
from  hell  rather  than  from  heaven. 

The  question  is  often  agitated,  whether  Christ  took 
flesh  in  its  lapsed  state,  or  in  its  primeval  innocency  ? 
The  Westminster  Confession  pertinently  answers,  that 
'the  Son  of  God  did  take  upon  Him  man's  nature, 
with  all  the  essential  properties  and  common  infirmities 
thereof,  yet  without  sin.'  Leo,  an  early  writer,  says : 
'  The  properties  of  each  substance  being  all  preserved 
and  kept  safe,  there  became  by  majesty,  humility ;  by 
strength,  infirmity ;  and  by  eternity,  mortality.'  Cyril 
says :  '  Flesh  is  not  the  flesh  of  God,  but  still  continues 
flesh,  although  it  be  the  flesh  of  God.'  The  apostle 


272  Seed-Tricths. 

says,  that  'in  all  things  it  behoved  Him  to  he  made 
like  unto  His  brethren,'  and  that  '  He  was  in  all  points 
tempted  as  we  are,  yet  without  sin.' *  And  our  Lord 
says  to  His  disciples,  '  Ye  are  they  who  have  continued 
with  me  in  my  temptations.' 2  The  devil  tempted  Him 
to  a  selfish  exertion  of  His  miraculous  powers,  in  com- 
manding the  stones  to  become  bread  for  His  appetite ; 
to  ambition,  by  showing  Him  all  the  kingdoms  of  the 
world  as  within  His  reach;  and  to  presumption,  by 
casting  Himself  down  from  the  pinnacle  of  the  temple.3 
Each  of  these  impulses  perfectly  coincides  with  the 
natural  feelings  which  Christ  inherited  with  His  flesh, 
without  which  He  could  no  more  have  felt  the  sug- 
gestions of  the  tempter  as  a  temptation  than  a  brute 
or  a  stone.  The  external  temptation  must  find  in  the 
tempted  a  coincident  impulse,  a  nature  suited  to  take 
the  impression,  or  there  could  be  no  approach  to  all 
'  the  points '  wherein  we  are  tempted. 

•  One  thing  is   perfectly   conclusive :  that  whatever 
may  have  been  the  source  of  our  Lord's  temptations, 
they  left  Him  'holy,  harmless,  undefiled,  and  separate 
from  sinners.'     '  He  offered  Himself  without  spot  to 
God.'     'He  did   no  evil,  neither  was  guile  found  in 
His  mouth.' 4    This  character  of  our  great  Sin-offering 
was  essential  to  all  the  types  and  prophecies  of  the 
previous  ages.     One  sin,  one  stain  upon  His  holy  soul, 
would   have    unfitted  it  to   be   an   offering  for    sin.8 
While  this  is  fully  conceded  on  all  hands,  is  there  no 
danger  of  robbing  Christ  of  His  glory  as  a  conqueror 
'  travelling  in  the  greatness  of  His  strength,'  by  with- 
drawing His  nature  and  condition  in  flesh  from  the 

>  Heb.  ii.  17,  iv.  18.  *  Luke  xxii.  28. 

•  Matt.  iv.  1-12.  4  Heb.  vii.  26,  ix.  14  ;  1  Pet.  i.  ID. 

•  i*i.  liii.  9,  10. 


God  Born  of  Man.  273 

ordinary  category  of  humanity,  to  make  sure  that  He 
should  be  immaculate  ?  The  Catholics  make  Him 
angelic  rather  than  human,  representing  not  only  that 
His  own  flesh  was  unlike  that  of  all  other  men,  but 
that  His  virgin-mother  was  equally  so,  and  was  trans- 
ported bodily  to  heaven.  Many  Protestants  sympa- 
thize in  these  unscriptural  views  so  far  as  to  make 
Christ's  human  nature  like  that  of  Adam,  or  at  least  of 
a  very  different  type  from  that  of  His  brethren,  which 
the  apostle  says  it  was  like.  The  apostle  is  very 
explicit,  first  denying  that  He  took  the  nature  of 
angels,  and  then  affirming  that  He  did  take  the  seed  of 
Abraham,  which  in  the  Old  Testament  is  charged  with 
greater  proclivities  to  sin  than  any  other  race  of 
human  kind.1 

Indeed,  the  flesh  that  Christ  took  upon  Him,  as 
being  that  of  man,  over  whom  it  had  dominated  from 
the  beginning  of  time,  had  come  to  be  another  name 
for  sin.  Hence  it  is  called  'the  body  of  the  sins  of 
the  flesh ; '  a  sinful  indulgence  is  a  '  garment  spotted 
by  the  flesh ; '  it  is  spoken  of  as  '  lusting  against  the 
spirit ; '  and  our  Lord,  in  taking  such  a  nature,  is  said 
to  have  been  '  made  sin  for  us.'  This  last  passage  is 
generally  amended  by  those  who  quote  it,  into  sin- 
offering,  thus  taking  from  the  passage  the  very  gist  of 
its  meaning.  The  idea  the  apostle  expresses  is,  that 
as  Christ  was  made  sin  for  us  by  being  born  into  a 
.nature  which  is  sin  in  all  others,  so  we,  by  being  born 
of  His  Spirit,  become  in  Him  the  righteousness  of  God. 
This  exchange  of  natures,  by  a  mutual  birth  of  Him 
into  us  and  we  unto  Him,  loses  all  its  force  by  making 

1  Heb.  ii.  16  ;  Ex.  xxxii.  9,  xxxiii.  3-5,  xxxiv.  9 ;  Deut.  ix.  6,  13, 

xx xt  27  ;  2  Chron.  xxx.  8  ;  Isa.  xlviii.  4. 

2  Col.  ii.  11  ;  Jude  M ;  Gai.  v.  17  ;  2  Cor.  v.  21. 

S 


274  Seed-  Tru  ths. 

Him  simply  a  sin-offering.  The  birth  of  the  Word  into 
the  '  likeness '  and  '  fashion  of  man '  as  a  sinner,  was 
symbolized  by  Moses  in  making  the  brazen  serpent  in 
the  likeness  of  the  reptile  which  had  infused  the  bane 
it  was  to  heal;  and  our  Lord  was  lifted  up  in  the 
similitude  of  the  sinful  nature  which  He  died  to 
redeem.1  If  there  is  any  truth  in  language,  therefore, 
or  any  reliance  to  be  placed  upon  symbols,  the  flesh 
which  our  Lord  took  upon  Himself  was  like  that  of 
His  brethren  whom  He  died  to  redeem,  and  not  the 
flesh  of  Adam  in  his  pristine  purity,  any  more  than 
it  was  the  nature  of  angels  who  have  never  sinned. 
'  For  both  He  that  sanctifteth  and  they  who  are  sancti- 
fied are  all  of  one/  that  is,  one  in  blood,  one  in  condi- 
tion, though  infinitely  different  in  character ;  one  in  the 
process  of  glorification  by  means  of  death  to  flesh  ;  and 
therefoie  '  He  is  not  ashamed  to  call  them  brethren/  2 
'And  through  death  He  delivers  them  who  through 
the  fear  of  death  were  all  their  lifetime  subject  to 
bondage ; '  and  this  He  does  by  the  crucifixion  of  their 
flesh,  and  their  resurrection  life  in  Him,  giving  them 
the  inward  assurance,  that  c  whether  living  or  dying, 
they  are  the  Lord's/  As  the  death  and  life  of  Christ 
were  not  of  Himself  as  a  man,  but  under  the  ruling 
of  the  Father,  whom  He  obeyed  in  all  things ;  so  the 
believer's  death  of  sinful  flesh  and  his  resurrection  to 
a  new  life  are  not  of  himself,  but  by  the  power  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  and  in  that  sense  they  are  God's. 
This  is  evidently  the  meaning  of  the  saying,  '  Whether 
we  live,  we  live  unto  the  Lord ;  and  whether  we  die, 
we  die  unto  the  Lord :  whether  we  live  therefore,  or 
die,  we  are  the  Lord's.  For  to  this  end/  or  to  effect 
this  death  and  life  in  us,  '  Christ  both  died,  and  rose, 

1  Pkil.  ii.  7,  8  ;  Num.  xxi.  9 ;  John  iii.  14.  *  Hcb.  ii.  11. 


God  Born  of  Man.  275 

and  revived,  that  He  might  be  Lord  both  of  the  dead 
and  living/  or  the  presiding  power  both  in  the  dying 
and  living  process.1 

Now,  whatever  the  condition  of  the  nature  which 
our  Lord  inherited  from  the  Virgin,  the  absolute  ruling 
of  divinity  over  all  its  impulses,  even  to  -that  of  its 
voluntary  sacrifice  upon  the  cross  in  obedience  to  the 
Father's  commandment,  sanctified  it,  and  made  it  an 
expiatory  offering  for  our  sins.  As  the  Captain  of  our 
salvation,  He  was  thus  '  made  perfect  through  suffer- 
ing ; '  and  this  became  Him,  or  was  necessary  to  Him, 
in  bringing  many  sons  unto  glory,  or  in  leading  us 
through  a  like  crucifixion  of  the  flesh  to  spiritual  and 
heavenly  life.2  The  apprehension  of  imputing  fleshly 
pollution  to  Christ,  by  admitting  that  He  took  human 
nature  in  its  effete,  decayed,  and  materialized  state 
after  four  thousand  years  of  pravity,  comes  from  failing 
to  consider  that  pollution  does  not  arise  from  the 
nature,  except  so  far  as  it  is  a  ruling  power.  To  all 
others  it  was  sin,  because  it  was  the  dominant  power 
of  their  lives,  and  they  were  without  strength  to  make 
it  anything  else.  But  in  Him  it  was  conquered  ;  it  was 
ruled  by  the  Spirit,  which  He  had  without  measure ; 
it  was  from  first  to  last,  in  the  temptations  of  life  and 
in  the  suffering  of  death,  so  absolutely  dominated  and 
subdued  by  the  divinity  in  Him,  as  to  be  as  holy  as 
God.  Hence,  though  He  was  made  sin,  or  what  was 
so  to  all  others,  yet  it  was  not  so  to  Him :  though  He 
had  the  serpent-form,  He  had  not  its  venom,  but,  on 
the  contrary,  a  life-giving  spiritual  energy  to  counteract 
and  scotch  the  serpent,  to  bruise  his  head  and  destroy 

1  Heb.  ii.  15,   Rom.  xiv.   8,  9  ;  with  which  compare  John  x,   18, 
xv.  10,  Acts  ii.  23,  34,  John  iv.  34,  v.  30,  vi.  39, 

2  Heb.  ii.  10, 


276  Seed-  Truths. 

his  power  over  believing  souls ;  in  reference  to  which 
He  says  exultingly,  '  I  beheld  Satan  as  lightning  fall 
from  heaven  ; '  and  again,  '  Now  is  the  judgment  of  this 
world :  now  shall  the  prince  of  this  world  be  cast  out ; 
and  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up  from  the  earth,  will  draw 
all  men  unto  me.' *  He  had  entered  Satan's  den  of 
fleshly  pollution;  He  had  taken  the  nature  dominated 
by  Satan  in  its  effete  and  decayed  condition ;  and  He 
through  the  Eternal  Spirit  had  held  it  uncorrupt,  and 
was  ready  to  offer  it  upon  the  cross  without  spot  to 
God,  bruised  as  to  His  heel,  but  crushing  the  serpent's 
head.2  This  was  our  Lord's  victory ;  in  this  we  see 
Him  travelling  in  the  greatness  of  His  strength, — a 
victory  and  a  strength  of  which  the  mistaken  zeal  of 
some  Christians  would  deprive  Him,  by  denying  that 
His  heel  ever  touched  the  serpent's  head,  or  that  He 
conquered  in  the  actual  likeness  of  sinful  flesh. 

Man,  in  his  very  constitution,  is  a  being  of  specific 
impulses,  whose  guilt  or  innocence  is  determined  by 
the  ruling  power  to  which  he  submits  himself,  acting 
in  freedom ;  nor  was  it  possible  for  our  Lord  to  take 
it  upon  Himself  without  the  temptations  thereto  in- 
cident, any  more  than  a  civilised  man,  with  all  the 
views  and  feelings  of  his  training,  can  take  upon  him- 
self a  savage  nature,  and  its  savage  and  brutalized 
associations,  without  a  struggle  between  himself  and 
his  assumed  life,  in  the  same  proportion  more  intense 
than  that  of  savages  themselves,  as  the  resisting  force 
within  him  is  greater.  We  may  be  allowed  this  com- 
parison, though  infinitely  removed  from  the  case  in 
hand.  Civilisation  and  savagery  are  relative  conditions, 
of  the  same  state  of  sin ;  and  spiritually,  one  may  be 
as  far  from  the  life  of  God  as  the  other.  If  such  a 

1  Luke  x.  13  ;  JuLii  xii.  ol,  32.  '2  (Jt-u.  iii.  15;  llcb.  ix.  M. 


God  Born  of  Man.  277 

transition  might  be  supposed  agonizing,  and  the  civilised 
man  might  feel  death  preferable  to  a  life  so  abhorrent 
to  all  his  proclivities,  what  shall  we  say  of  One  from 
the  centre  and  seat  of  infinite  holiness,  One  from  the. 
bosom  of  God,  One  from  eternity  inheriting  the  Father's 
full  glory,  One  to  whom  all  angelic  praises  had  been 
offered,  One  with  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead  bodily 
dwelling  in  Him, — what  shall  we  say  of  such  a  One 
in  a  nature  four  thousand  years  dominated  by  the 
flesh,  and  in  a  state  whose  confirmation  in  sin  had 
grown  with  the  ages,  till  it  had  reached  the  culminat- 
ing point  of  earthliness  and  depravity  ?  The  agony 
of  Messiah,  under  such  circumstances,  was  beyond  all 
our  powers  of  illustration  or  conception.  Can  we 
wonder  to  hear  Him  say,  '  My  soul  is  troubled/  '  My 
soul  is  exceedingly  sorrowful,  even  unto  death ; '  that 
'  His  sweat  should  be,  as  it  were,  great  drops  of  blood 
falling  down  to  the  ground ; '  or  that  He  should  pray 
on  the  cross,  '  My  God,  my  God,  why  hast  Thou  for- 
saken me  ? '  Or  can  we  wonder  that  psalmists  and 
prophets,  foreseeing  His  great  conflict  here  in  the 
flesh,  should  give  words  to  His  agony  thus :  '  Thou 
hast  laid  me  in  the  lowest  pit,  in  darkness,  in  the 
deeps.  Thy  wrath  lieth  hard  upon  me,  and  Thou  hast 
afflicted  me  with  all  Thy  waves.  .  .  .  Thou  hast  put 
far  from  me  lover  and  friend,  and  mine  acquaintance 
into  darkness.'  '  He  was  oppressed,  and  He  was 
afflicted,  yet  He  opened  not  His  mouth :  He  is  brought 
as  a  lamb  to  the  slaughter,  and  as  a  sheep  before  her 
shearers  is  dumb,  so  He  openeth  not  His  mouth?'1 
Such  words,  in  describing  a  suffering  Messiah,  are  too 
numerous  for  quotation. 

1  John  xii.  27  ;  Matt.  xxvi.  38  ;  Luke  xxii.  44 ;  Ps.  xxii.  1  ;  Matt, 
xxvii.   46  ;  Ps.  Ixxxviii.  6-18  ;  Isa.  liii.  7. 


278  Seed- Truths. 

By  excluding  the  divine  nature  of  Christ  from  all 
participation  in  His  sufferings,  and  making  them 
merely  human,  do  we  not  misrepresent  the  Gospels, 
and  reduce  His  sacrifice  infinitely  below  the  place 
assigned  it  in  the  law  and  the  prophets  ?  We  start 
with  the  postulate  that  God  cannot  suffer  ;  that  our 
Lord's  agony  was  merely  that  of  a  man — no  greater 
than  many  a  martyr  has  endured ;  and  to  make  up 
the  deficiency  of  it  as  a  substitute  for  our  punishment 
in  hell  for  ever,  we  add  the  dignity  of  His  character. 
This  is  the  philosophical  view  to  formulate  the  subject 
to  our  reason.  But,  '  without  controversy,  great  is  the 
mystery  of  godliness :  God  was  manifest  in  the  flesh, 
justified  in  the  Spirit,  seen  of  angels,  preached  unto 
the  Gentiles,  believed  on  in  the  world,  and  received 
up  into  glory  ; '  nor  can  our  reason  lift  the  veil  of  this 
mystery.1  I  do  not  know  a  passage  in  the  Bible  to 
justify  this  theory ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  He  is  affirmed 
to  have  given  HIMSELF  for  us,  and  made  His  SOUL  an 
offering, — terms  which  can  include  nothing  short  of  His 
whole  personality.2 

The  nature  of  Christ  was  a  unit,  though  of  a  dupli- 
cate parentage — the  one  divine,  the  other  human ;  the 
result  of  which  is  an  individual  consciousness ;  and 
what  is  of  both  parents  is  as  completely  one  in  that 
consciousness  as  if  they  had  been  of  the  same  race. 
'  His  two  natures  have  knit  themselves  the  one  to  the 
other/  says  Cyril,  '  and  are  in  that  nearness  as  incap- 
able of  confusion  or  distinction.'  All  that  Christ  felt 
and  thought,  whether  arising  from  His  oneness  with 
Hi  I)ivin«'  F;illi<T  nr  with  His  human  mother,  was  as 
much  a  unit  in  His  conscious  selfhood  as  that  which 
comes  from  our  bodily  or  from  our  spiritual  lelations 

1  1  Tim.  iii.  1G.  '  Tit.  ii.  14  ;  Jsa.  liii.  10,  12. 


God  Born  of  Man.  279 

is  a  unit  in  us.  This  qualified  Him  to  suffer  as  God 
as  well  as  man,  and  is  the  uncontroverted  mystery  of 
the  incarnation  of  which  the  apostle  speaks.  He  had 
not  only  infinite  powers  of  thought  and  action,  but  of 
endurance  in  suffering;  and  was  as  truly  God  in  the 
one  as  in  the  others.  How  much  more  can  a  man 
endure  than  a  beast !  '  The  spirit  of  a  man  will 
sustain  his  infirmity;  but  a  wounded  spirit  who  can 
bear  ? ' ]  He  has  not  only  greater  wounds  than  a 
beast,  but  greater  power  to  sustain  them.  If  this  is 
so  with  us  in  comparison  with  inferior  creatures,  how 
much  more  with  the  infinite  Son  of  God  as  Compared 
with  us ! 

True,  Jesus  had  no  remorse ;  but  still  '  the  iniquity 
of  us  all  was  laid  upon  Him/  and  '  He  suffered  the 
just  for  the  unjust,  that  He  might  bring  us  nigh  to 
God,  being  put  to  death  in  the  flesh,  but  quickened  by 
the  Spirit.' 2  And  if  He  suffered  His  death-struggles, 
beginning  with  the  manger  and  ending  only  with  the 
cross,  in  leading  us  forth  to  a  spiritual  and  heavenly 
life,  then  He  suffered  not  as  a  man  merely,  but' 
infinitely  more — as  God.  No  case  of  sweating  blood 
from  purely  mental  agony,  in  a  constitution  untouched 
by  disease  and  uninjured  by  excess  in  any  form,  has 
ever  been  authenticated,  except  in  Him  who  in  Geth- 
semane  bore  up  under  a  burden  of  woe  which  no 
human  power  could  support,  and  to  which  an  angel 
lent  a  helping  hand.3  Everywhere  in  Scripture  the 
sufferings  of  the  Messiah  are  represented-  as  equal  to 
the  infinitude  of  His  character  ;  and  so  they  were 
regarded  by  Christians,  till  a  pretentious  philosophy 
stepped  in  to  remove  from  them  the  veil  of  mystery, 
by  dividing  His  powers  of  endurance,  and  assigning  His 

1  Prov.  xviii.  14.         2  Isa.  liii.  6  ;  1  Pet.  ii.  24.       3  Luke  xxii.  43. 


2  So  Seed-  Truths. 

sufferings  only  to  the  human  part  of  His  nature.  But 
the  Holy  Spirit,  in  making  His  blood  a  power  to  salva- 
tion, works  upon  those  who  are  too  much  absorbed  by 
a  sense  of  their  sins  to  think  of  dividing  their  Saviour's 
character;  and  the  cross  is  to  them  the  organ  of  an 
infinite  woe  endured  for  their  redemption. 

'  Alas  !  and  did  my  Saviour  bleed  ? 

And  did  my  Sovereign  die  ? 
Would  He  devote  that  sacred  head 
For  such  a  worm  as  I  ? ' 

The  universality  of  these  words,  in  spiritual  worship, 
shows  their  fitness  to  every  converted  man's  experience. 
All  this  He  endured,  not  for  the  sake  of  any  remote 
principle  or  abstract  element  of  the  moral  government 
of  God,  but  '  that  we,  being  dead  to  sins,  should  live 
unto  righteousness,  by  whose  stripes  we  are  healed.'1 
His  travail  of  soul  in  flesh  was  with  a  view  to  its 
glorification  in  Himself,  that  by  a  like  travail  in  His 
elect  they  may  attain  to  a  spiritual  and  heavenly  life. 
How  this  latter  result  is  achieved  will  be  considered 
in  what  follows. 

1 1  Pet.  ii.  24. 


CHAPTER    XXIII. 
DYING  TO  LIVE. 

WHAT  most  of  all  confirms  our  view  of  inspired 
teaching  as  to  the  nature,  condition,  and  neces- 
sities of  our  race,  and  what  shows,  at  the  same  time, 
how  extraordinary  is  the  work  of  its  restoration  to  vir- 
tue and  happiness,  is  the  change  contemplated  in  it, 
and  the  means  of  effecting  that  change.  Owing  to  an 
objective  or  philosophical  treatment  of  the  subject,  in- 
stead of  one  purely  biblical, — a  treatment  dating  back 
to  the  early  centuries,  when  atoning  efficacy,  from  being 
a  subjective  experience,  as  with  the  apostles,  became  a 
matter  of  reasoning  and  speculation  after  the  manner 
of  Platonists  and  Gnostics,  and  which  is  continued  to 
this  day, — owing  to  these  causes,  I  say,  the  real  nature 
of  what  the  gospel  proposes  to  do  for  our  souls  is 
ignored,  or  held  more  as  a  theory  than  as  a  present 
power  working  death  to  flesh,  that  the  spirit  may  live. 
The  crucifixion  which  Paul  speaks  of  as  wrought  on 
him,  that  Christ  might  live  in  him,1  is  not  now  deemed 
integral  to  the  atoning  process,  but  merely  a  conse- 
quence of  its  prior  existence.  The  atonement,  in  this 
view,  spent  its  force  on  some  great  principle  of  the 
divine  government,  quite  apart  from  any  direct  effect 
upon  those  for  whom  it  was  made,  as  if  the  congrega- 
tion of  Israel  had  been  atoned  for  without  any  partici- 

1  Gal.  ii.  20. 


282  Seed-  Truths. 

pation  of  their  own.  They  had  brought  no  sacrifice  ; 
had  not  assembled  at  the  door  of  the  sanctuary ;  had 
not  afflicted  their  souls,  nor  abstained  from  labour,  nor 
shown  any  interest  in  the  matter ;  and  yet  their  high 
priest  had  effected  for  them  a  perfect  reconciliation  to 
God  on  the  mercy-seat.1  Under  like  circumstances  of 
abstraction  of  us  from  Christ,  and  Christ  from  us,  it  is 
supposed  our  reconciliation  was  complete,  though  it 
remained  to  bring  it  home  to  us  by  effectual  vocation. 
Thus,  by  disjoining  things  that  the  apostles  unite  in 
one,  many  are  encouraged  to  hope  for  salvation  who 
give  no  signs  of  effectual  vocation,  and  who  have  only 
an  atoning  process  in  which  they  have  never  partici- 
pated to  rest  upon.  I  fear  the  greater  portion  of  those 
who  expect  heaven  at  last  have.no  better  basis  than 
this ;  not  having  approached  the  vestibule  of  that  spi- 
ritual sanctuary  in  which  now  God  on  the  mercy-seat 
awaits  the  approach  of  a  people  showing  the  effect 
upon  their  souls  of  what  the  blood  of  His  Son  repre- 
sents. They  are,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  merely 
natural  men,  and  know  nothing  of  being  crucified  and 
raised  with  Christ;  but  conceive  of  His  atonement 
as  a  makeweight  thrown  into  the  scale  to  supply  the 
defects  of  their  carnal  lives.  They  have  no  thought 
of  blood  as  a  spiritual  purification,  lifting  their  souls  to 
the  holiness  of  heaven.  Power  to  assert  themselves 
sons  of  God,  living  or  dying,  which  is  the  essential 
thing  in  one  to  whom  Christ's  blood  is  effective,  is 
utterly  beyond  their  experience.  '  They  are  poor  sin- 
ners, but  have  a  great  Saviour/  is  the  confession  of 
ininiy  who  have  no  faith  to  stretch  out  their  withered 
members  to  Christ  for  instant  healing.  Never  can 
Christianity  enter  upon  its  final  triumph  till  such  theo- 

1  Lev.  xxiii.  20-32. 


Dyi  ng  to  L  ive.  283 

logy  and  such  ways  of  living  give  place  to  the  faith 
which  is  our  victory  over  sin  through  the  blood  of  the 
Lamb  I1 

It  is  remarkable  that  this  professed  reliance  upon 
the  atonement  to  make  up  deficiencies  should  be  con- 
nected with  the  legal  spirit  of  doing  to  live,  rather  than 
living  to  do.     How  many  pass  their  lives  in  the  vain 
endeavour  to  amend  to-day  what  they  did  yesterday, 
to  pacify  their  uneasy  consciences,  and  render  them- 
selves acceptable  to  God,  instead  of  walking  by  faith  ! 
In  this  they  know  and  confess  their  failures  ;  but  Christ 
died  for  them,  and  that  fact  produces  a  fictitious  quie- 
tude in  reference  to  their  final  prospects.      They  are 
neither  cold  nor  hot,  not  indifferent ;  and  yet  not  be- 
lieving to  the  present  saving  of  their  souls.     No,  they 
have  the  notion  of  a  grace  to  cancel  their  defects  when 
they  die ;  but  not  to  reign  in  them  while  they  live,  as 
their  power  to  walk  with  God.     That  power  they  con- 
ceive of  as  in  themselves ;  and  thus  practically  they 
are  under  the  law,  and  not  under  grace,  in  spite  of  all  • 
they  say  of  depending  upon  the  atonement  for.  salva- 
tion.    In  fact,  their  view  of  the  atonement  is  one  of 
the  great  errors  of  their  life ;  because  they  accept  it  as 
the  offset  to  a  fleshly  ruling,  and  not  as  introducing 
the  reign  of  heaven  into  their  souls.     Death  with  Christ 
as  to  the  natural  'man,  that  Christ  may  live  in  them  as 
a   controlling  power — which  the  apostles  everywhere 
make  essential  to  atoning  efficacy — is  no  part  either 
of  their  experience  or  their  acceptation  of  Christianity. 
Such  a  faith  in  the  atonement,  however  it  may  con- 
duce to  a  life  of  legal  struggles  and  failures,  does  not 
reflect  the  gospel  view,  nor  give  peace  with  God  through 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.     Its  throes  and  contortions  are 

1  John  i.  12  ;  1  John  v.  4  ;  Rev.  xii.  11. 


284  Seed-Truths. 

of  the  natural  man,  growing  out  of  fear,  a  regard  to 
character,  nervous  disease,  or  a  sensibility  of  conscience 
disproportioned  .to  their  power  of  obeying  its  dictates. 
It  is  not  apostolic  Christianity. 

This  state  of  things  among  Christians  may  perhaps, 
in  many  cases,  be  set  to  the  account  of  the  resisting 
force  of  the  natural  man  in  those  with  whom  God  has 
begun  a  good  work ;  as  among  the  Corinthians  car- 
nality rendered  them  babes  when  they  ought  to  have 
been  men.1  But  more  usually,  I  fear,  it  arises  from  de- 
fective theological  teaching  in  the  pulpits,  in  creeds,  in 
books,  in  tracts,  in  newspapers,  Sunday  schools,  prayer- 
meetings,  and  through  all  the  channels  for  shaping 
public  and  private  religious  conviction.  Another  stan- 
dard than  that  of  Christ  actually  living  and  reigning 
in  the  soul  to  trample  under  foot  its  enemies  of  flesh 
and  devil  is  adopted, — a  standard  which  accepts  the 
makeweight  view  of  the  atonement  to  cover  the  de- 
fects of  those  whose  names  are  enrolled  in  the  church ; 
who  pay  to  support  its  institutions ;  who  are  not  im- 
moral ;  who  admit  that  they  are  poor  sinners,  and  wish 
they  were  better,  although  not  one  sign  of  £race  ap- 
pears in  them,  and  they  are  even  more  worldly  and 
selfish  than  their  unbelieving  neighbours.  The  policy 
of  building  up  sects,  and  increasing  their  wealth  and 
power  by  admitting  into  them  such  materials,  prevails 
on  all  hands  to  a  sufficient  extent  to  account  for  the 
limited  victories  of  our  present  Israel.  Hence  it  is 
that  so  many  earnest  men,  as  Wickliffe,  Huss,  Luther, 
Calvin,  Knox,  Wesley,  and  Whitfield,  felt  themselves 
compelled  to  act  a  revolutionary  part  in  the  organiza- 
tions which  gave  them  their  training,  as  our  Lord  did 
in  reference  to  Judaism. 

1 1  Cor.  iii.  1-3. 


Dying  to  Live.  285 

Who  ever  heard  of  such  a  party  leader  as  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  ?  When  the  amiable  young  man  who  had 
great  possessions  kneeled  to  Him,  though  Jesus  loved 
and  might  desire  him  as  'an  associate  and  helper  in 
His  incipient  cause,  still  He  made  the  terms  of  dis- 
cipleship  so  rigorous  as  to  drive  him  away  for  ev^er.1 
One  predominant  worldly  passion — as  the  love  of. 
money,  for  instance — any  uncrucified  lust,  would  make 
the  richest  and  most  powerful  convert  in  the  world  a 
source  of  weakness  rather  than  of  strength  in  such  a 
cause.  Jesus  did  not  come  among  men  to  build  up  a 
party,  but  to  hunt  out  the  prodigals  and  restore  them, 
by  a  death  to  what  they  once  were,  and  a  new  life  to 
what  they  were  henceforth  to  be.  His  was  an  errand 
of  salvation  from  carnal  ruling  to  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  in  the  soul ;  and  He  had  no  party  that  could 
be  benefited  by  those  who  would  not  submit  to  this 
radical  process.  His  was  a  kingdom  that  suffered  vio- 
lence, and  that  only  the  violent  in  dealing  with  all  the 
obstructions  of  their  fleshly  nature  could  enter.2  He  had 
no  atonement  to  offer  for  sin  that  did  not  crucify  the 
sinning  nature,  and  establish  in  its  place  a  spiritual  life. 
This  doctrine  must  be  revived  from  the  rubbish  of  fifteen 
hundred  years  of  objective  and  philosophical  reasoning 
on  the  subject  of  atoning  efficacy,  before  the  sacramental 
host  can  be  led  to  victory  and  the  millennium. 

Under  the  former  dispensations,  this  idea  of  death 
on  the  one  hand,  in  order  to  life  on  the  other,  a  fleshly 
crucifixion  and  a  spiritual  resurrection,  was  kept  before 
the  world  by  the  blood  of  sacrificial  animals.  From 
the  predicted  bruising  of  Christ's  heel  in  crushing  the 
serpent's  head,  to  this  day,  blood  is  the  great  expedient 
in  redemption ;  four  thousand  years  of  this  time  being 

1  Mark  x.  17-21.  a  Matt.  xi.  12. 


286  Seed-Truths. 

used  as  a  symbol,  and  more  than  eighteen  hundred  as 
spiritual  power.  'Redeemed  by  the  precious  blood  of 
Christ : a  this  is  the  doctrine  of  doctrines,  the  only  sun 
among  ten  thousand  luminaries ;  and  it  behoves  every 
one  to  see  to  it  that  he  does  not  darken  its  beams  by 
perverted  views,  nor  rob  his  soul  of  its  efficacy  by  look- 
ing elsewhere  for  its  fruits  than  in  the  death  of  flesh 
and  life  in  spirit.  May  the  Holy  Spirit  help  us  faith- 
fully to  represent  and  truly  to  use  so  great  a  doctrine ! 
This  doctrine  of  salvation  by  blood  is  without  pre- 
cedent in  profane  history,  or  in  other  religions.  'Hero- 
dotus does  indeed  mention  blood  as  a  pacificator  be- 
tween the  contending  tribes  of  Western  Asia;  the 
chiefs  wounding  their  arms  and  absorbing  each  other's 
blood,  in  sealing  their  compacts  of  amity.2  And  blood 
in  religious  ceremonies  is  not  unknown  among  the 
heathen.  In  these  cases,  however,  nothing  is  found 
approaching  the  Christian  doctrine  of  atonement.  And 
those  philosophical  Christians  of  our  age  who  make 
blood  the  representative  of  a  martyr  influence ;  or  of 
the  potency  accruing  from  an  example  of  self-sacrifice ; 
or  a  sympathetic  expedient  to  move  men  to  virtue,  as 
a  mother  uses  her  tears  with  refractory  children ;  or  of 
arguments  to  convince  the  reason  of  moral  truth ;  or 
of  an  appeal  to  natural  conscience  to  give  it  an  impulse 
towards  reform :  whoever,  I  say,  resorts  to  such  means 
of  explaining  the  position  assigned  to  blood  in  the  Bible 
as  an  expedient  for  reclaiming  a  lost  race,  is  as  false  to 
the  sacred  text  as  to  the  facts  and  necessities  of  the 
human  condition.  Is  it  to  be  supposed  that  inspired 
men  would  make  so  much  account  of  so  small  a  mat- 
ter ?  Or  is  reform  among  men  so  easy  a  thing  as  these 
reasoners  would  represent  ?  As  to  the  Catholic  view 

1  1  Put.  i.  19.  «  Viotory,  Book  i.  sec.  75. 


Dying  to  Live.  287 

of  material  blood,  as  having  an  inherent  efficacy  to 
take  away  sin,  or  that  the  loaf  blessed  by  a  priest  or 
the  wine  from  sacerdotal  hands  becomes  the  veritable 
flesh  and  blood  of  Christ,  it  is  too  absurd  to  be  dealt 
with  by  truth  or  argument. 

It  is  simply  as  the  representative  of  spiritual  efficacy 
to  take  away  sin,  that  blood  is  used  in  Scripture.  As 
we  said  in  our  first  chapter,  spiritual  truths  must  have 
a  seeding  in  words  and  symbols,  in  order  to  be  appre- 
hended by  men ;  and  there  are  obvious  reasons,  as  we 
shall  see,  why  Infinite  Wisdom  should  assign  to  blood 
the  mission  of  representing  to  us  the  power  that  cancels 
sin.  Blood,  as  the  life- current,  represents  life ;  as  it  is 
said,  '  The  life  of  the  flesh  is  in  the  blood ;  and  I  have 
given  it  to  you  upon  the  altar  to  make  atonement  for 
your  soul :  for  it  is  the  blood  that  maketh  atonement. 
No  soul  of  you  shall  eat  blood,  neither  shall  any  stranger 
that  sojourneth  among  you  eat  blood.'1  It  was  death  to 
transgress  this  law.  Not  only  is  blood  the  life,  but  it  is 
a  term  also  for  death,  and  blood-guiltiness  was  murder.2 
Life  and  death,  or  death  and  life,  is  the  stem-thought  or 
germinal  idea  in  this  symbol  It  represents  the  process 
by  which  the  Son  of  God  wrought  out  redemption, 
'  dying  for  our  sins,  and  being  raised  for  our  justifica- 
tion ;'  '  delivered  by  the  eternal  counsel  and  foreknow- 
ledge of  God  to  be  crucified  and  slain ;'  '  whom  God 
raised  up,  having  loosed  the  pains  of  death/  With 
such  an  expedient  in  view  from  the  beginning  of  time, 
can  we  wonder  that  blood  was  used  to  represent  it  ?3 

But  the  death  and  resurrection  of  Christ  derive  their 
potency  in  human  history  from  being  a  representative 

1  Lev.  xvii.  11,  12. 

8  Gen.  xxxvii.  26  ;  Lev.  xvii.  4  ;  Ps.  11  14. 

3  Horn.  iv.  25 ;  Acts  ii.  23,  24. 


288  Seed-Truths. 

and  forerunner  to  a  like  process  in  all  that  believe,  of 
dying  to  live.  If  there  had  been  no  Holy  Spirit  to 
reproduce  the  death  and  resurrection  of  Christ  in  the 
experience  of  men,  and  they  had  stood  as  isolated  facts 
of  history,  would  they  have  occupied  the  place  they 
do  ?  Does  not  redemption  give  them  their  value  to 
us  ?  Even  the  precious  blood  that  fell  in  Gethsemane, 
and  trickled  down  the  rugged  wood  of  the  cross,  had 
only  a  representative  force.  It  is  not  in  clotted  cor- 
ruption nor  among  dead  men's  bones  that  we  are  to 
look  for  atoning  efficacy.  '  He  is  not  here,  for  He  has 
risen,'  is  the  direction  of  the  angel  where  to  look  for 
the  living  power  in  redemption.1  Our  atoning  High 
Priest  has  passed  into  the  heavens,  there  to  appear  on 
the  right  hand  of  God  for  us ;  and  thence  alone  'pro- 
ceeds the  saving  power  represented  by  blood.2 

Dying  to  live  was  the  maxim  which  ruled  through- 
out our  Lord's  earthly  experience.  It  began  in  the 
stable  at  Bethlehem ;  was  carried  on  in  His  retired  life 
at  Nazareth,  in  a  state  so  unlike  the  heavenly  choirs 
from  which  He  came ;  was  exemplified  in  His  forty 
days'  conflict  in  the  wilderness ;  in  His  subsequent 
career  of  labour  and  poverty,  not  having  where  to  lay 
His  head ;  in  bearing  our  sicknesses  and  infirmities ; 
in  nightly  vigils  and  prayers;  in  the  calumny  of  His 
enemies,  over  whom  He  wept  bitter  tears  ;  in  the  agonies 
of  the  garden ;  in  the  taunts  and  insults  of  the  closing 
scene,  and  finally  in  His  death  upon  the  cross.  What 
was  this,  from  beginning  to  end,  but  a  process  of  cruci- 
fixion to  all  His  feelings  as  a  man  ?  As  human  nature 
was  the  same  in  Him  as  in  us,  it  could  not  have  been 
otherwise.  No  worldly  good  accrued  to  Himself  or 
family  from  His  extraordinary  powers,  which  to  them 

1  Matt  xxviii  6.  a  Col.  iii.  1 ;  Heb.  ix.  14,  15. 


Dying  to  Live.  289 

was  a  cause  of  complaint ;  and  they  demanded  that 
He  'should  show  Himself  to  the  world'  as  a  wonder- 
worker, and  thus  raise  Himself  and  them  to  worldly 
pre-eminence.1  The  impulse  ruling  Him  from  above 
admitted  no  such  display,  but  urged  Him  to  the  per- 
fection that  suffering  only  could  give.  The  Eternal 
Spirit  energizing  in  Him  bore  Him  forward  in  this 
career  of  woe,  till  His  manhood  succumbed,  not  to  sin, 
but  to  pain  and  death,  His  heel  bruised  in  bruising  the 
serpent's  head,  and  He  fell  a  victim  to  that  world  for 
which  He  came  to  die.  Thus  it  was  that  He  provided 
to  conduct  us  to  spiritual  life  by  crucifying  in  us  the 
body  of  the  sins  of  the  flesh,  achieving  the  only  victory 
and  glory  which  He  sought  or  could  receive — the  vic- 
tory and  glory  of  infinite  love. 

There  is  nothing  in  the  New  Testament  answering 
to  the  universal  use  of  blood  in  the  ceremonies  of  the 
Old,  but  this  process  of  dying  to  live,  first  in  Christ 
and  then  in  us ;  and  no  other  possible  exhibition  could 
reduce  in  human  nature  the  dominant  flesh  to  the  sub- 
ordination necessary  to  the  coming  of  the  kingdom  of 
heaven.  The  words  IXdo-fcofiai,  fXaoyz-o?,  and  iXaarjj- 
PLOV — hilaskomai,  hilasmos,  and  hilasterion — rendered 
in  our  common  version,  to  reconcile,  propitiation,  and 
mercy-seat,  are  but  a  few  times  used  by  the  apostles, 
and  cannot  be  designed  to  fill  the  place  of  Jcapporeth, 
atonement,  which,  with  the  verb  from  which  it  is  de- 
rived, is  a  hundred  and  forty  times  repeated  in  the 
Old  Testament.2  The  root  of  the  word  Jcapporeth 
means  literally  to  cover,  probably  to  express  the  idea 
that  though  sin  may  be  hid  from  view,  and  no  longer 
operate  to  our  condemnation,  the  fact  of  its  exist- 

1  John  vii.  4. 

«  Heb.  ii.  17;  Rom.  iii.  25  ;  Feb..  ix.  5;  1  John  ii.  2,  iv.  10. 
T 


Seed-  Truths. 

ence  can  never  be  annihilated.  The  idea  of  hiding 
sin,  casting  it  behind  the  back,  and  remembering  it 
no  more,  is  no  doubt  derived  from  this  primary  mean- 
ing of  the  word  used  for  atonement  or  expiation.1 
The  stem-thought  of  kapporetli  is  that  of  removing  from 
persons  and  things  whatever  renders  them  unfit  for  the 
service  of  God. 

As  the  New  Testament  has  no  synonym  for  atone- 
ment in  Hebrew,  the  idea  is  expressed  by  facts  rather 
than  by  particular  epithets.  We  are  at  enmity  with 
God,  and  alienated  from  Him  by  wicked  works.  God  is 
angry  with  the  wicked  every  day;2  and  the  atonement 
is  that  which  reconciles  the  parties.  Our  enmity  may 
be  chronic  rather  than  acute,  and  only  a  serious  effort 
to  detach  us  from  our  idols  of  concupiscence  or  from 
our  worldly  ideas  could  perhaps  fully  bring  it  to  light. 
So  God's  anger  may  be  simply  the  settled  antagonism 
of  His  holiness  to  our  unholiness,  His  spiritual  law  to 
our  fleshly  nature.  But  whatever  His  anger  or  our 
enmity,  an  irreconcilable  difference  exists  between  the 
parties ;  and  how  are  they  to  be  reconciled  ?  One  or 
the  other  of  them  must  recede  from  his  ground,  or  both 
must  undergo  a  change  and  meet  half-way;  and  which 
is  it — God  or  we,  or  both  ?  '  God  in  Christ,  reconciling 
the  world  to  Himself,'3  is  the  way  the  apostle  states  the 
case,  and  not  Himself  to  the  world.  He  has  nothing  to 
recede  from,  being  infinitely  right  in  all  things,  and  the 
change  must  be  wholly  in  us.  We  have  everything  to 
give  up,  because  we  are  wholly  wrong ;  and  our  only 
inability  to  be  at  peace  with  God  is,  that  we  are  in  the 

1  Ps.  li.  9,  ciii.  12,  xxv.  7,  Ixxix.  8;  Isa.  xxxviiL  17.     The  scapt- 
goat  expressed  a  like  idea.     See  Lev.  xvi.  10,  26. 

•  Koin.  viii.  7  ;  Eph.  iv.  18;  Ps.  vii.  1L 

•  2  Cor.  v.  19. 


Dying  to  Live.  291 

flesh  and  under  its  ruling,  and  we  cannot  please  God.1 
Imputation  of  another's  righteousness  to  cover  our  de- 
fects is  unworthy  of  God ;  and  besides,  it  would  effect 
nothing  till  the  body  of  our  sins  was  destroyed,  that  we 
should  not  serve  sin.  A  mind  under  the  ruling  of  the 
flesh  cannot  be  made  happy  by  imputation,  nor  by 
any  expedient  short  of  a  fleshly  crucifixion  in  order  to 
a  spiritual  resurrection  with  Christ.  This,  therefore,  is 
the  substance  of  which  the  blood  of  beasts  under  the 
law  was  a  shadow.  It  is  only  in  this  view  that  we 
can  enter  into  apostolic  teaching  on  this  subject.  If 
sin  were  anything  but  the  rule  of  a  nature  in  opposi- 
tion to  God,  or  divine  anger  anything  but  the  anta- 
gonism of  infinite  holiness  to  such  a  nature,  then  we 
might  talk  of  expedients  to  pacify  that  anger,  or  of 
taking  away  sin  by  something  short  of  a  crucifixion  of 
the  opposing  nature ;  but  as  the  case  stands,  and  as  it 
is  represented  from  Genesis  to  Eevelation,  we  have  only 
to  look  into  the  facts  to  see  how  utterly  unavailing  is 
any  atonement  which  is  not  a  dying  to  live.  This  is 
the  way  that  Christ  leads,  and  we  must  follow.  This 
is  the  cross  to  be  taken  up,  and  not  that  of  doing  public 
duties  to  which  we  are  reluctant,  as  many  suppose.  The 
atonement  is  a  history,  not  a  theory;  it  is  a  concrete 
fact  of  our  inward  and  outward  relations  to  God,  and 
not  an  abstraction  of  justice,  of  law,  or  of  government. 
The  Holy  Spirit  is  the  positive  energy  in  conduct- 
ing the  process  in  all  that  believe.  '  He  takes  of  the 
things  of  Christ,  and  shows  them  to  us,'  and  '  does  not 
speak  of  Himself.'2  Much  more  is  meant  by  this 
passage  than  suggesting  to  us  Christ's  words,  or  open- 
ing to  us  the  doctrines  which  He  taught.  His  words 
and  doctrines,  great  as  they  are,  do  not  equal  His 

1  Kom.  viii.  8.  8  John  xvi.  13,  15. 


292  Seed-  Truths. 

deeds.  '  Laying  down  His  life,  and  taking  it  again,'  * 
by  His  own  voluntary  act,  and  in  obedience  to  His 
Father's  commandment,  or  through  the  Eternal  Spirit, 
by  whom  He  offered  Himself  to  God,  in  order  to  lead 
the  way  for  a  like  experience  in  us,  is  the  greatest  of 
all  His  achievements.  He  thus  acted  what  had  been 
taught  from  the  beginning  of  time :  that  spirit  is 
greater  than  nature  ;  that  nature  must  perish  before 
spirit  can  reach  its  full  development ;  that  the  forces 
entitled  to  rule  us  are  not  the  fleshly  ideas  and  feel- 
ings by  which  we  are  so  insanely  impelled,  but  those 
which  come  from  the  unseen  and  the  eternal ;  and  that 
we  need  not  fear  to  trust  to  the  wreck  of  all  our 
earthly  fortunes,  if  only  everlasting  life  is  an  abiding 
energy  in  our  souls.  These  are  the  truths  that  Christ 
enacted,  and  that  must  by  the  Eternal  Spirit  be  re- 
enacted  in  us,  or  the  first  step  towards  reconciliation 
has  not  yet  been  taken.  Christ  went  through  the 
process  as  a  man,  and  in  sympathy  with  humanity, 
for  whose  infirmities  He  is  '  touched '  with  tender 
compassion  ;2  but  He  did  it  not  for  Himself,  but  '  for 
us/  or  to  commute  His  own  power  into  a  permanent 
energy  for  the  reproduction  of  a  like  process  in  all 
that  believe.  This  energy  is  the  Holy  Ghost,  who  has 
nothing  of  His  own  to  offer,  but  only  this  great  record 
in  Him  whom  He  represents.  Dying  to  live  was  the 
culminating  point  of  types  and  prophecies,  and  it  was 
that  which  the  apostles  determined  only  to  know  in 
preaching  nothing  but  Christ  and  Him  crucified.8 

In  things  the   unfitness    for   God's  service  which 
atoning  blood  removed,  was  not  inherent,  but  represen- 
tative.    It  arose  from  the  corrupt  use  to  which  every- 
thing pertaining  to  man's  life  had  been  devoted,  and 
1  John  x.  18.  f  Heb.  iv.  15.  «  1  Cor.  ii.  2. 


Dying  to  Live.  293 

the  consequent  vicious  associations  with  which  it  had 
been  connected  in  his  mind.  To  reclaim  a  voluptuary, 
his  vicious  haunts  must  be  broken  up  or  forsaken  ; 
and  he  must  be  surrounded  only  by  things  fitted  to 
inspire  him  with  pure  and  honourable  sentiments. 
So  our  language,  our  literature,  our  institutions,  our 
usages,  our  associations,  our  possessions,  and  our  whole 
outward  life,  must  feel  the  atoning  influence  operating 
in  ourselves,  to  give  them  a  new  aspect  and  direction, 
and  altogether  higher  and  more  beneficent  uses.  *  It' 
any  man  be  in  Christ,  he  is  a  new  creation  ;  old  things 
are  passed  away  ;  behold,  all  things  are  become  new/ 
That  the  apostle  refers  this  change  to  the  atoning 
process,  is  evident  from  the  words  immediately  follow- 
ing :  '  And  all  things  are  of  God,  who  hath  reconciled,' 
or  atoned,  '  us  to  Himself  by  Jesus  Christ/  l 

This  new  attitude  towards  all  that  concerned  us  in 
our  former  state  could  only  come  of  our  dying  to  what 
we  once  were,  and  being  raised  with  Christ  to  a 
new  and  heavenly  life.  Our  Lord  alludes  to  the  same 
when  He  says,  '  He  that  hateth  his  life  in  this  world, 
shall  keep  it  unto  life  eternal/  And  this  hatred  He 
extends,  in  another  place,  to  father,  mother,  wife, 
children,  brethren,  sisters,  yea,  and  his  own  life,  as 
necessary  to  discipleship :  that  is,  hate  and  crucify  our 
whole  outward  condition,  so  far  as  it  interferes  between 
our  souls  and  God.  This  is  having  the  world  crucified 
unto  us,  and  we  unto  the  world.2  Can  we  wonder 
that,  in  shadowing  forth  such  an  idea,  blood  should  be 
required  to  make  priest,  people,  altar,  tabernacle,  and 
all  its  implements  of  divine  service,  acceptable  to  God  ? 
1  2  Cor.  v.  17,  18.  a  John  xii.  25  ;  Luke  xiv.  26  ;  Gal.  vi.  14. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 
THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD  WITH  POWER. 

OUR  subject,  it  will  be  seen,  is  a  historical  rather 
than  a  theoretic  view  of  human  nature.  It 
pertains  to  redemption  in  its  present  working  among 
the  elenients  of  the  world,  and  not  in  its  millennial  or 
heavenly  consummation.  True,  it  is  never  complete 
in  the  present  life,  but  always  in  conflict  with  insur- 
rectionary foes  in  the  new  man  himself  which  must  be 
kept  in  subjection,1  and  with  assailing  powers  from 
without.  Still  it  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven  of  which 
all  the  regenerated  are  subjects ;  and  it  is  with  power, 
because  under  the  reign  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  which  our 
Lord  speaks  of  as  power  from  on  high.2  Power 
supposes  resistance  to  be  overcome ;  and  the  idea  is 
nowhere  associated,  I  believe,  with  God's  rule  of  holy 
beings.  No  force  coerced  the  angels  to  render  their 
homage  to  the  Infant  of  Bethlehem,  inferior  as  He 
seemed  to  themselves ;  but  gladly  they  obeyed  the 
call  to  worship  Him.3  Only  in  this  process  of  cruci- 
fixion to  the  dominant  flesh  and  resurrection  to  a  new 
life  in  God  do  we  see  '  the  exceeding  greatness  of  that 
power  which  wrought  first  in  Christ  in  raising  Him 
from  the  dead/  and  then  in  rendering  llic  pivnrlimg  of 
the  cross  the  power  of  God  to  our  salvation.4  Ihu 

1 1  Cor.  ix.  27.  *  Luke  xxiv.  49. 

1  Ileb.  L  6  ;  Luke  ii.  9-14.  «  Kpli.  i.  19  ;  1  Cor.  i.  18. 

294 


The  Kingdom  of  God  with  Power.      295 

cross,  as  representative  of  our  Lord's  regeneration  of 
blood,  becomes,  in  the  hands  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  the 
efficiency  to  a  like  regeneration  in  all  that  believe. 
This  is  the  kingdom  of  God  with  power. 

Owing  to  partial  views  of  the  subject,  we  are  prone 
to  underestimate  the  greatness  of  this  achievement. 
Many  who  think  themselves  Christians  are  conscious 
of  no  such  wonderful  transition  in  themselves,  and 
they  doubt  its  existence  in  others.  Perhaps  they  are 
right  in  estimating  their  own  condition ;  for  the  natural 
man  is  liable  to  various  changes  of  thought  and  pur- 
pose,—  changes,  too,  that  seem  improving  to  moral 
character,  and  are  mistaken  for  the  spiritual  life, 
though  remote  as  possible  from  dying  to  live.  Others, 
in  whom  the  good  work  has  really  been  wrought,  are 
so  overwhelmed  with  a  sense  of  the  evils  in  themselves 
yet  to  be  overcome,  as  to  underestimate  the  work  done 
in  their  hearts.  They  are  so  far  from  '  apprehending 
that  for  which  they  have  been  apprehended  of  Christ 
Jesus,'1  that  they  seem  to  themselves  almost  without  a 
standing  as  spiritual  men.  But  with  all  these  abate- 
ments and  misgivings  in  estimating  what  the  Spirit 
has  really  done  for  us,  is  it  not  true  that  war  has 
been  inaugurated  against  the  dominant  flesh-and-devil 
power  ?  Is  there  not  a  powerful  phalanx  prosecuting 
this  war  under  the  leadership  of  the  Holy  Spirit  ? 
Did  not  our  Lord  exult  in  the  fact  that  such  a  war 
had  begun  when  He  sent  out  the  seventy  disciples  ? 2 
The  spiritual  David  stood  face  to  face  with  the  giant 
foe,  defying  him  in  the  name  of  Jehovah  of  Israel.3 
The  inauguration  of  such  a  war,  in  the  person  of  Jesus 
and  in  every  believer,  is  contesting  the  right  of  the 
flesh  to  rule,  and  embodies  elements  of  certain  victory. 
1  Phil.  iii.  12.  3  Luke  x.  18-22  ;  Matt.  xi.  27.  3  1  Sam.  xvii.  45. 


2  9  6  Seed-  Truths. 

'Resist  the  devil,  and  he  will  flee  from  you;  draw 
nigh  to  God,  and  He  will  draw  nigh  to  you.' 1 

This  failure  of  dying  to  live,  on  the  part  of  so  many 
Christians  so  called,  and  this  weakness  of  faith  in  so 
many  others,  have  had  the  injurious  effect  in  our  theo- 
logies of  magnifying  Christ's  death  towards  God  and 
His  government,  to  make  up  for  the  apparent  defi- 
ciency of  its  influence  among  men.  Though  nobody 
were  really  saved,  still  Christ  would  be  a  great  Saviour, 
because  He  has  offered  to  divine  law  and  justice  an 
equivalent  for  the  salvation  of  many.  And  if  they 
are  not  saved  under  the  ruling  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in 
the  present  life,  if  elected  they  will  be,  under  death's 
dominion  dissolving  their  mortal  bodies  ;  so  that 
however  selfish,  however  carnal,  however  worldly, 
however  miserly  and  malignant  up  to  the  last  pul- 
sation of  their  congealed  blood,  they  will  step  into 
eternity  quavering  with  their  attuned  voices  the  song 
of  Moses  and  the  Lamb.  With  this  vast  background 
of  law  appeased  and  justice  satisfied,  can  we  not 
sufficiently  magnify  atoning  efficacy,  and  set  it  off 
gloriously,  even  with  the  failure  of  a  veritable  death 
of  the  sin  of  flesh,  in  order  to  a  spiritual  resurrection 
with  Christ  ? 

This  process  of  lowering  down  the  requirements  of 
God's  kingdom  on  earth  by  magnifying  them  in  heaven 
began  early  to  work  as  a  '  mystery  of  iniquity/ 2  or  as 
a  deep  stratagem  of  the  adversary  to  content  Christians 
with  an  atonement  infinite  and  glorious  in  everything 
but  that  for  which  it  was  designed — a  power  in  them 
to  kill  their  sin,  and  make  them  victorious  in  faith  and 
holiness.  What  does  the  great  deceiver  care  for  the 
greatness  of  the  atonement,  if  he  can  only  use  it  to 

iv.  7.  «  2  Thess.  ii.  7  ;  1  Jolm  ii.  18. 


The  Kingdom  of  God  with  Power.      297 

fasten  our  fleshly  chains  ?  This  mystery  of  iniquity 
began  to  wax  strong  when  Christianity,  from  being  a 
spiritual  life,  with  all  its  glowing  sympathies,  became 
a  science  of  the  schools  side  by  side  with  speculative 
philosophy.  Among  the  first  questions,  it  was  asked, 
To  whom  did  Christ  pay  the  price  of  our  redemption  ? 
Origen,  of  the  third  century,  thought  He  paid  it  to 
the  devil,  to  whom  the  redeemed  had  before  belonged. 
Others  disputed  the  position  ;  and  after  a  few  ages  of 
debating,  by  pen,  pulpit,  and  council,  the  question  was 
resolved  into  our  present  theory,  that  Christ's  death 
was  a  sacrifice  to  law  and  justice.  It  was,  as  others 
express  it,  to  appease  the  indignant  ethical  nature  of 
God  in  letting  the  guilty  go  free.  Divine  anger  and 
the  outraged  moral  sentiment  of  the  universe  demanded 
a  victim  for  man's  sin,  and  that  victim  must  be  the 
sinner  himself,  or  his  substitute ;  and  as  the  Son  of 
God  consented  to  take  the  sinner's  place,  the  Father 
poured  on  Him  the  full  vials  of  His  wrath. 

It  comes  therefore  to  this,  as  stated  by  an  advocate 
of  the  theory,  that  God  was  angry  with  Himself, 
punished  Himself,  and  became  a  self-immolated  victim 
in  the  person  of  His  Son,  to  pave  the  way  to  pardoning 
the  guilty.  What  simple-minded  person  under  con- 
viction for  sin  could  take  in  such  a  concatenation  of 
ideas  as  the  basis  of  his  hope  ?  It  is  the  feeling  that 
Christ  died  for  him,  and  he  must  relinquish  his  sins 
for  such  a  Saviour,  and  lead  a  holy  life  by  His  grace, 
that  gives  him  hope.  And  yet  this  death  to  sin  and 
life  to  righteousness  is  deemed  by  many  no  adequate 
exposition  of  atoning  efficacy.  The  exacting  flesh 
demands  something  less  taxing  to  self,  under  the  idea 
of  doing  greater  honour  to  Christ.  Some  become  Anti- 
noniians  under  the  subtle  influence  \  others  spend  their 


2  98  Seed-  Truths. 

days  in  a  doubtful  position  between  nature  and  grace ; 
and  not  a  few  die  in  hope,  because  their  life  has  been 
one  of  torture,  not  of  triumph,  and  they  think  Christ's 
blood  will  make  up  for  their  deficiencies.  There  are 
many  honourable  exceptions  to  this  painful  picture ; 
but  not  enough  to  restore  professing  Christians  as  a 
body  to  the  energy  of  a  faith  that  it  is  a  real  dying  to 
live,  or  of  a  piety  that  can  conceive  of  no  atonement 
or  reconciliation  with  God  on  any  principle  but  that  of 
a  baptism  and  regeneration  of  blood.  No  wonder  that 
a  piety  so  killing  to  flesh  and  so  quickening  to  spirit 
should  be  a  power  when  it  is  really  exercised. 

Look  at  what  ensued  to  Christ's  followers  fifty  days 
after  His  death.  They  were  a  simple-hearted  unchival- 
rous  company ;  from  the  most  virtuous  circles  of  their 
age,  no  doubt ;  but  from  stations  and  callings  quite  out  of 
the  line  of  heroic  achievement.  Their  life,  after  leaving 
their  cottage  homes,  had  been  a  wandering  one,  and 
without  motive,  except  to  hear  the  words  and  witness 
the  deeds  of  the  young  man  whose  person  and  influence 
had  such  a  charm  to  their  feelings.  A  mysterious 
attraction  drew  them  after  Him,  leading  them  to  call 
Him  Master  and  Lord  even  in  His  poverty.  Why  they 
did  so  admitted  of  scarcely  a  logical  conclusion  ;  and  to  a 
mind  severe  in  its  worldly  calculations,  they  would  have 
been  deemed  vagabondish  and  unavailing.  Those  who 
had  an  eye  to  the  loaves  and  fishes  were  better  under- 
stood, and  soon  fell  off  as  from  uncongenial  affinities, 
neither  wanting  nor  being  wanted,  neither  helping  nor 
helped  in  their  main  purposes.  They  found  themselves 
with  a  Master  who  had  no  leisure  but  for  prayer,  no 
powers  or  resources  that  brought  a  worldly  requital,  no 
position  or  intellectual  culture,  and  who  practised  none 
oi  the  arts  of  kingly  command'  among  men ;  and  those 


The  Kingdom  of  God  with  Power.      299 

who  were  looking  out  for  the  main  chance  soon  found 
that  they  had  nothing  to  hope  from  such  a  leader. 
Still  a  mysterious  influence  invested  Him,  winning  har- 
lots to  purity,  and  publicans  to  justice  and  liberality. 
All  felt  the  magic  of  it,  stirring  them  to  love  or 
malignity.1 

While  He  lived,  there  was  no  transfer  to  others  of 
His  power,  excepting  the  healing  of  diseases  and  cast- 
ing out  devils  in  His  name.2  Not  a  man  of  His  fol- 
lowers rose  above  a  worldly  estimate  of  things ;  and 
hence  the  question,  in  the  very  hour  of  His  ascension, 
'Wilt  Thou  now  restore  the  kingdom  unto  Israel?'8 
He  could  not  speak  fully  of  the  end  of  His  mission, 
because  they  could  not  '  bear '  it,  nor  comprehend  its 
import.4  They  had  glimpses  of  a  higher  life  ;  but,  like 
their  successors  in  after  ages,  they  were  looking  to  a 
temporal  kingdom,  or  to  some  mysterious  effect  upon  the 
government  of  God,  or  to  vast  and  unknown  changes  in 
somebody  or  something  besides  themselves.  How  little 
do  we  realize  that  things  are  great  in  their  simplicity ; 
and  that  to  set  on  foot  a  power  to  make  the  carnal 
spiritual,  the  earthly  heavenly,  the  selfish  benevolent, 
the  sinful  holy,  is  an  enterprise  that  needs  no  adven- 
titious aids  to  make  it  great  and  glorious !  The  touch 
of  the  surgeon's  lancet,  simple  as  it  is,  becomes  great 
to  him  whose  life  is  saved  by  its  means.  Can  we 
wonder  that  the  patriarchal  and  Mosaic  ages  accom- 
plished so  little,  when  these  disciples  were  so  slow  in 
learning  what  they  really  needed,  and  under  such  a 
Teacher  too,  and  when  so  few  retain  the  significance 
of  what  Pentecost  taught  them  ?  '  Fellowship  with 
Christ  in  His  sufferings,'  or  actual  communion  with 

1  Matt.  xxi.  32  ;  Luke  iv.  22,  v.  27,  xix.  2  ;  John  vii.  46. 
•  Luke  ix.  1,  x.  17.  3  Acts  i.  6.  4  John  xvi.  12. 


300  Seed-Truths. 

Him  in  them,  in  order  to  conformity  to  His  death ; 
alas,  how  few  have  acquired  such  an  experience  in 
them  as  to  attain  to  His  resurrection  I1 

Aware  of  the  ruling  of  natural  ideas  in  His  dis- 
ciples, our  Lord  directed  them  to  tarry  at  Jerusalem 
till  they  should  be  endued  with  power  from  on  high. 
And  they  did  wait  in  prayer  and  supplication  for  ten 
days  after  His  ascension,  Mary  His  mother  being  of 
the  company,  who  is  not  afterwards  mentioned,  because, 
when  her  Divine  Son  ceased  to  be  known  after  the 
flesh,  and  was  known  only  in  His  glorified  state,  His 
earthly  relations  were  lost  sight  of.2  The  tabernacle 
was  now  completed,  and  only  awaited  its  occupant ;  the 
victim  was  upon  the  altar,  and  needed  only  fire  from 
heaven  to  exhale  it  into  heavenly  odours.  Intense  were 
the  longings  of  these  simple-hearted  men  for  a  good 
hoped  for,  but  dimly  outlined,  when  the  accordant  note 
of  faith  and  prayer  was  at  length  reached,  as  when  the 
priests  of  the  temple  made  one  voice  to  be  heard  on 
high,  and  '  there  came  a  sound  from  heaven,  as  of  a 
rushing  mighty  wind,  and  it  filled  all  the  house  where 
they  were  sitting/  investing  them  with  a  heavenly 
element,  and  filling  them  with  the  Holy  Ghost.8  '  Arise, 
0  Lord  God,  unto  Thy  resting-place,  Thou  and  the  ark 
of  Thy  strength ;  let  Thy  priests,  0  Lord  God,  be  clothed 
with  salvation,  and  let  Thy  saints  rejoice  in  Thy  good- 
ness/* Thus  the  death  of  earthly  hopes  and  ideas,  and 
the  concentration  of  hope  and  prayer  upon  heavenly 
things,  proved  the  birth  to  a  new  life,  new  powers,  and 
the  realization  of  the  original  conception  of  manhood, 
as  uniting  in  itself  the  power  of  two  worlds. 

This  was  the  coming  of  God's  kingdom  in  power. 

1  Phi',  iii.  0-11.  »  .Vts  i.  1?,  14. 

»  Acu  ii.  i    l  ,  -  <  hi  on.  v.  13,  14.  *  2  (  LAM.  v".  41. 


The  Kingdom  of  God  with  Power.      30 1 

The  Divinity  now  absorbed  in  Himself  the  ideas  and 
energies  of  human  nature,  and  reigned  within,  single 
and  alone.  The  tongues  of  flame,  denoting  a  propa- 
gating power,  made  it  a  kingdom  for  all  of  every  nation 
who  render  the  obedience  of  faith.  It  demanded  ex- 
pansion, and  could  not  be  restrained  by  a  thick-ribbed 
Judaism.  Who  can  estimate  the  efficiency  which  speech 
thus  acquired  for  man's  regeneration  ?  Where  shall  we 
find  a  full  record  of  the  results  of  a  spiritual  power 
thus  obtained  ?  Church  history  is,  like  painting,  a  mere 
surface-view  of  Christianity.  Its  soul  is  unlimned  and 
unseen.  Eeasoning  on  the  subject,  as  upon  worldly 
connections  of  cause  and  effect,  to  reduce  it  to  the  level 
of  our  natural  plain  of  thought,  is  far  more  absurd  than 
to  attempt  an  explanation  of  the  mysteries  of  gravita- 
tion or  of  central  forces.  The  results  of  speaking  the 
word  in  demonstration  of  the  Spirit  have  more  than 
realized  the  sword  of  flame  at  the  gate  of  Eden,  and 
the  tongues  of  fire  on  the  day  of  Pentecost. 

'  When  one  who  holds  communion  with  the  skies 
Has  tilled  his  urn  where  these  pure  waters  rise, 
And  once  more  mingles  with  us  meaner  things, 
'Tis  e'en  as  if  an  angel  shook  his  wings : 
Immortal  fragrance  fills  the  circuit  wide, 
And  tells  us  whence  their  treasures  are  supplied.' 

The  first  sermon  delivered  under  the  new  impulse  is 
remarkable  for  its  pointed  charge  of  guilt  '  in  killing 
the  Prince  of  life,  whom  God  hath  raised  from  the 
dead/  and  in  identifying  the  person  of  Jesus  with  the 
Jehovah  of  Abraham  and  of  Moses,  whom  David  always 
saw  before  his  face,  and  thus  in  concentrating  all  previ- 
ous type  and  prediction  upon  a  church  crucified  with 
Christ,  and  raised  by  the  Spirit's  baptism.  The  fishermen 
and  their  associates  no  longer  lived  their  natural  lives. 


3  o  2  Seed-  Truths. 

The  Holy  Spirit  was  the  ruling  power  within  them,  to 
realize  the  primeval  inbreathing  of  man's  creation.  It 
commuted  their  weakness  into  strength,  their  folly  into 
wisdom,  their  timidity  into  courage,  their  low,  confined 
ideas  into  thoughts  high  as  heaven,  vast  as  eternity, 
and  their  death  into  life.  It  opened  to  them  visions 
of  the  glorified,  to  cancel  their  fear  of  mobs  and  mar- 
tyrdoms. And  like  effects  appeared  in  their  converts, 
who  '  daily  attended  with  one  accord  in  the  temple, 
and  breaking  bread  from  house  to  house,  partook  their 
food  with  gladness  of  heart,  praising  God,  and  having 
favour  with  all  the  people.'1 

It  will  be  seen  that  we  take  our  example  of  God's 
restored  kingdom  with  power,  from  what  may  be 
thought  an  extreme  case,  and  nowise  answering  to 
the  general  examples  of  Christianity  which  we  see 
around  us.  But,  which  is  our  rule  of  judging  in  the 
case, — What  God  has  done,  or  what  man  has  done  ? 
Besides,  in  all  cases  where  the  power  for  a  holy  life 
really  exists,  is  there  not  an  approximation  to  apostolic 
experience  ?  Was  it  not  so  with  Luther  and  many 
of  his  associate  reformers  ?  Was  it  not  so  with  Whit- 
field  and  Wesley  ?  Was  it  not  so  with  Edwards  and 
Brainerd  ?  And  has  it  not  been  so  in  all  our  great 
revivals  of  religion  ?  Millions  of  Christians  realize 
in  themselves  a  death  and  resurrection  with  Christ, 
whose  sex,  whose  circumstances,  whose  poverty,  sick- 
ness, and  necessary  seclusion,  compel  them  to  an  unde- 
monstrative life,  so  far  as  this  world  is  concerned,  but 
who  have  that  infinitely  greater  cause  of  joy  than  the 
power  of  casting  out  devils,  that  their  names  are  written 
in  heaven.* 

But  how  about  miracles  ?     Were  they  not  an  in- 
1  Acta  ii.  46.  *  Luke  x.  20. 


The  Kingdom  of  God  with  Power.      303 

tegral  part  of  the  apostolic  kingdom  of  God  ?  Yes ; 
and  so  was  that  of  having  their  property  in  common, 
— a  state  of  things  not  now  possible,  but  towards  which 
people  always  converge  the  more  they  are  ruled  by  the 
Holy  Spirit.  Whenever  there  is  a  large  amount  of 
spiritual  influence  among  the  churches,  untold  amounts 
of  wealth  become  a  fund  for  charity,  for  missions,  for 
education,  and  for  all  the  purposes  of  doing  good, 
although  a  like  necessity  for  living  from  a  common 
treasury  nowhere  exists  as  with  the  first  church  in 
Jerusalem.  That  was  a  church,  to  a  large  extent,  of 
strangers  on  a  religious  mission  to  the  Holy  City1 — 
'  devout  men,  out  of  every  nation  under  heaven ;'  and 
how  could  they  subsist  except  on  the  common-stock 
principle  ?  As  to  miracles,  though  they  convert  no 
man,  they  were  a  necessity  to  an  age  whose  mate- 
rialism was  proof  against  all  the  ordinary  modes  of 
appeal,  and  whose  attention  to  the  new  visitation  could 
not  be  otherwise  arrested.  But  is  there  not  in  all 
cases  of  remarkable  spiritual  manifestations  much  that 
borders  on  miracle  ?  What  will  be  said  of  the  extra- 
ordinary things  in  the  lives  of  such  men  as  Bunyan, 
Wesley,  and  of  even  Muller  of  Bristol,  in  our  own 
times  ?  Do  they  not  record  events  and  experiences 
quite  out  of  the  ordinary  connection  of  cause  and 
effect  ? 

Besides,  the  power  of  God  in  regeneration  is  super- 
natural, if  not  miraculous.  As  Augustine  quaintly 
sets  it  forth,  'more  easily  did  my  body  obey  the 
weakest  willing  of  my  soul,  in  moving  its  limbs  at  its 
nod,  than  the  soul  obeyed  itself  to  accomplish  in  the 
will  alone  this  its  momentous  will.  Whence  this 
monstrousness,  and  to  what  end  ?  Let  Thy  mercy 

1  Acts  ii.  5-11. 


304  Seed-  Truths. 

gleam,  that  I  may  ask  ;  if  so  be  that  the  secret 
penalties  of  men,  and  those  darkest  pangs  of  the 
sons  of  Adam,  may  perhaps  answer  me.  Whence 
is  this  monstrousness  ?  and  to  what  end  ?  The  mind 
commands  the  body,  and  it  obeys  instantly  ;  the  mind 
commands  itself,  and  is  resisted.  The  mind  commands 
the  hand  to  be  moved  ;  and  such  readiness  is  there,  that 
.command  is  not  distinct  from  obedience.  Yet  the 
mind  is  mind,  the  hand  is  body.  The  mind  commands 
the  mind — its  own  soul — to  will,  and  yet  it  doth  not. 
Whence  this  monstrousness  ?  and  to  what  end  ?  It 
commands  itself,  I  say,  to  will,  and  would  not  com- 
mand unless  it  willed  ;  and  what  it  commands  is  not 
done.  Bid  it  willeth  not  entirely.  For  so  far  forth  it 
commandeth  as  it  willeth ;  and  so  far  forth  the  com- 
manded thing  is  not  done,  as  it  willeth  not.  For  the 
will  commandeth  that  there  be  a  will, — not  another, 
but  itself.  But  doth  not  command  entirely  ;  there- 
fore what  it  commanded  is  not.  For,  were  the  will 
entire,  it  would  not  even  command  it  to  be,  because  it 
would  already  be.  It  is  therefore  no  monstrousness 
partly  to  will,  and  partly  not  to  will ;  but  a  disease  of 
the  mind,  that  it  doth  not  wholly  rise,  being  by  truth 
upborne,  by  custom  down-borne.'1 

Out  of  this  dilemma  no  power  but  that  of  the  cross 
can  raise  a  man.  It  is  a  miracle  of  grace  to  concen- 
trate our  wills  upon  being  and  doing  what  is  utterly 
repugnant  to  all  our  currents  of  desire.  'To  will  is 
present  with  me ;  but  how  to  perform  that  which  is 
good  I  find  not.'2  When  deliverance  comes,  it  is 
always  with  a  burst  of  gratitude  that  it  comes  'through 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord  ;'  and  that  we  are  relieved  from 
condemnation  by  being  'in  Christ/  in  the  sense  of 
1  Memoirs,  pp.  l.ir,,  157,  153.  *  Rom.  viL  18. 


The  Kingdom  of  God  with  Power.      305 

"being  crucified  and  raised  with  Him.  Hence  every 
such  transition  is  by  a  power  above  nature,  and  is 
really  more  effective  for  building  up  the  kingdom  of 
God  than  any  number  of  material  miracles.1  When- 
ever it  is  genuine,  or  a  real  death  of  the  body  of  sin 
and  a  real  resurrection  to  a  new  life,  it  becomes  the 
starting-point  of  a  new  series  of  psychological  facts, 
called  '  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit,  love,  joy,  peace,  long- 
suffering,  gentleness,  goodness,  faith,  meekness,  temper- 
ance,'2— graces  existing  in  a  form  and  with  modifica- 
tions utterly  unattainable  to  the  natural  man.  '  Against 
such  there  is  no  law/  because  the  new  life  is  accepted 
as  a  fulfilment  of  the  design  and  purpose  of  all  legal 
requisitions.  The  law  is  fulfilled  in  those  who  walk 
after  the  Spirit  ;  and  thus  the  atoning  process  is 
complete. 

In  the  use  of  the  word  rendered  atonement  in  the 
Old  Testament,  it  is  applied  to  the  going  forth  from 
the  offending  party  of  what  is  accepted  by  the  of- 
fended party  as  a  token  of  reconciliation.  It  was  so 
applied,  first  to  the  offering  of  beasts  by  which  Jacob 
conciliated  his  brother  Esau.3  It  is  next  applied  to 
the  half  shekel  required  of  each  Israelite  that  was 
numbered  after  the  exode,  it  being  called  atonement 
money.  It  was  not  applied  to  the  paschal  lamb.  The 
blood  of  that  sprinkled  on  the  door-post  was  a  token 
to  the  destroying  angel  that  he  should  pass  on  and 
destroy  Egypt,  who  held  the  people  in  bondage,  but 
leave  unharmed  the  inmates  of  all  the  blood-stained 
houses.  As  a  sign  of  redemption,  it  denoted  the 
relaxing  of  the  power  of  sin  holding  the  soul  in 
bondage,  and  of  life  and  freedom  to  the  escaping 
emancipated  spirit, — death  to  flesh,  and  life,  in  God. 

1  Rom.  vii.  25,  viii  1.         8  Gal.  v.  22,  23.         3  Gen.  xxxiu  21. 
U 


306  Seed-  Truths. 

But  the  money  to  which  the  term  atonement  or  cover- 
ing of  sin  is  applied  paid  for  the  flour,  incense,  wine, 
oil,  fuel,  salt,  priests'  garments,  and  whatever  was 
used  in  the  daily  service  of  Jehovah.  It  furnished 
the  fuel  of  the  consecrated  flame  ascending  from  the 
altar,  burning  there  night  and  day,  and  from  age  to 
age,  as  a  symbol  of  those  prayers,  praises,  and  devout 
'affections  which  believers  unceasingly  offer  to  God. 
It  comes  up  before  God  as  a  new  psychological  de- 
velopment in  humanity  produced  by  His  Holy  Spirit, 
and  as  such  is  a  •'  memorial  for  our  souls/  or  a  reminder 
that  we  are  subjects  of  His  restored  kingdom  among 
men.1  These  affections  in  us  which  are  symbolized  by 
the  daily  offerings  in  the  tabernacle  are  spoken  of  as 
'  the  sacrifices  of  praise  continually,  that  is,  the  fruit 
of  our  lips,  giving  thanks  to  His  name/  2  and  are  the 
living  evidence  that  the  blood  of  the  cross  is  more  to 
us  than  an  abstraction  of  law ;  that  it  is  indeed  a 
positive  force,  killing  our  Egypt  of  sin  and  giving  life 
and  freedom  to  our  souls,  of  which  our  holy  aspira- 
tions and  praises  are  a  standing  memorial.  They  are 
the  life-blood  of  Christ  our  Paschal  Lamb,  as  seen  on 
'  the  two  side-posts  and  upper  door-posts/  to  indicate 
that  the  soul  within  is  to  go  free.3 

If  we  would  have  our  sins  covered  and  cancelled, 
therefore,  we  must  be  sure  of  a  reigning  Christ  within 
us  by  His  viceregal  Spirit,  clothing  us  in  a  robe  of 
such  beautiful  graces,  virtues,  and  gifts,  that  we  '  may 
be  presented  to  Him  a  glorious  church,  not  having 
spot,  or  wrinkle,  or  any  such  thing ;  but  that  we 

*  Compare  Ex.  xii.  with  Ex.  xxx.  11-16. 

•  Heb.  xiii.  15,  16  ;   Rom.  xii.  1  ;  Ps.  li.  17,  1.  13-15 ;  Hos.  vi.  6  ; 
Mic.  vi.  7,  8. 

»  Ex.  xil  7. 


The  Kingdom  of  God  with  Power.        307 

should  be  holy  and  without  blemish.' *  But  let  us  not 
delude  ourselves  with  a  covering  of  satisfied  legal 
penalties  in  which  we  have  no  participation.  Let  us 
not  think  to  appear  in  a  robe  of  righteousness  which 
somebody  else  wore,  but  which  we  show  no  signs  of 
having  put  on.  Let  us  not  trust  our  hopes  of  heaven 
on  the  death  and  resurrection  of  Christ's  body,  as 
absorbing  in  itself  all  the  vengeance  due  to  us,  when 
we  show  no  signs  of  fellowship  in  His  sufferings,  or  of 
conformity  either  to  His  death  or  resurrection.  Alas 
for  the  piety  of  millions  !  Whatever  covering  for  sin 
it  trusts  to,  it  is  certainly  not  that  of  being  influenced 
by  the  mercies  of  God  in  giving  His  Son  to  die  for  us, 
which  shows  itself  in  '  presenting  the  body  a  living 
sacrifice,  holy,  acceptable  unto  God,  as  a  most  reason- 
able, as  a  most  righteous  service.'2 

It  is  in  a  state  of  endeavour  that  God  meets  with 
us  as  a  resurrection  power.  And  is  not  the  true 
doctrine  of  the  cross  full  of  inspiration  to  a  higher  and 
still  higher  spiritual  life  ?  Did  Christ  die  and  rise 
again  that  we  may  die  and  rise  with  Him,  and  shall 
we  spend  our  days  in  this  sepulchre  of  fleshliness  and 
partial  sanctification  ?  Oh  that  there  were  one  uni- 
versal movement  among  Christians  to  realize  in  them 
selves  the  full  effects  of  atoning  blood !  All  discovery, 
all  advance  even  in  natural  things,  comes  to  us  in  an 
attitude  of  endeavouring  it ;  and  can  we  hope  for  it 
otherwise  in  the  divine  life  ?  This  chilling  unbelief  as 
to  the  possibilities  of  our  holy  vocation  represses  endea- 
vour, and  renders  thousands  children  when  they  ought 
to  be  men.  They  are  not  even  *  feeling  after  God,  if 
haply  they  may  find  Him/  and  how  can  they  hope  that 
the  kingdom  will  come  with  power  to  their  souls  ? 
1  Eph.  v.  27.  8  Rom.  xii.  1. 


CHAPTEE    XXY. 

SUFFERING  AS  THE  INITIATIVE  OF  POWER. 

rflHE  use  of  suffering  in  redemption,  as  seen  first  in 
JL  our  Lord's  passion,  and  then  in  the  experience 
of  His  followers,  is  a  subject  that  requires  careful  con- 
sideration. Who  does  not  shrink  from  passing  under 
the  rod  ?  Yet  it  is  God's  chosen  means  of  disciplining 
and  saving  us.  True,  suffering  in  itself  is  no  cure 
of  sin,  tending  rather  to  exasperate  the  guilty  one  into 
hatred  and  malignity  against  God  and  His  govern- 
ment. We  read  of  those  who  '  gnawed  their  tongues 
for  pain,  and  blasphemed  the  God  of  heaven,  because 
of  their  pains,  and  because  of  their  sores,  and  repented 
not  of  their  deeds.'1  This  is  the  uniform  effect  of 
suffering,  in  itself  considered.  It  is  the  prison  to  the 
thief,  the  gallows  to  the  assassin,  an  object  of  detesta- 
tion and  a  cause  of  exasperation  against  the  govern- 
ment that  inflicts  it. 

But  suffering  as  a  throe  of  agony  in  casting  off  sin, 
out  ot  regard  to  the  holiness  of  God,  becomes  a  point 
of  coincidence  between  the  soul  and  the  grace  that 
eaves  it;  an  initial  moment  in  passing  from  fleshly 
to  spiritual  and  heavenly  ruling.  This  is  what  the 
apostle  calls  icara  Oebv  \v7rrj,  sorrow  out  of  regard  to 
God,  as  distinguished  from  rov  /cocr^ov  XvTrrj,  sorrow  of 
ilw  world;  the  one  working  repentance  to  salvation, 
>  Rev.  xvi.  10,  11. 


Suffering  as  the  Initiative  of  Power.     309 

the  other  the  death  of  increased  guilt  and  misery.1 
The  one  is  a  sense  of  sin,  and  an  effort  to  throw  it  off' ; 
the  other  unsatisfied  desire,  disappointed  hope,  and 
intensified  malignity.  Sorrow  for  the  sin  of  nature, 
out  of  a  regard  to  God,  is  the  soul's  moulting  period, 
so  to  speak,  wherein  it  is  reduced  to  the  last  point  of 
weakness  in  a  struggle  to  disburden  itself  of  guilt  of 
the  past,  and  take  on  a  renewed  and  infantile  life. 
This  is  being  converted  and  becoming  little  children.2 

Our  Lord  reached  this  extreme  point  of  weakness, 
in  disrobing  Himself  of  mortality,  and  assuming  His 
crown  of  glory,  when  He  cried,  'My  God,  my  God, 
why  hast  Thou  forsaken  me  ?'*  This  cry  was  at  the 
moment — which  always  comes  in  such  cases — when 
the  cup  of  agony  is  exhausted  to  its  dregs,  when  the 
baptism  of  blood,  at  its  point  of  lowest  submergence, 
exhausts  the  last  resource  of  earthly  life.  Our  Lord's 
human  nature  wrought  in  Him  as  powerfully  as  in  us, 
when  He  felt  Himself  thus  dropped,  as  it  were,  into  a 
bottomless  sea  of  agony,  detaching  Him  from  all  He 
held  most  dear  on  earth ;  and  no  exclamation  can  be 
conceived  more  fitting  to  the  occasion.  It  was  truth 
and  nature  putting  into  words  as  much  of  an  infinite 
woe  as  could  be  expressed. 

In  the  garden  His  body  was  spared,  except  as  it 
sympathized  with  His  agonized  mind ;  and  besides,  an 
angel  lent  a  helping  hand.  But  now  body  and  soul 
accepted  the  destiny  which  both  He  and  His  Divine 
Father  had  chosen  for  Him ;  and  no  angelic  interme- 
diation could  longer  delay  the  crisis  of  suffering,  in 
commuting  mortal  into  immortality,  or  in  converting 
himself,  His  WHOLE  SELF,  into  spiritual  power  working 

1  2  Cor.  vii.  10.  2  Mark  x.  15;  Luke  xviii  17 

*  Matt,  xxvii.  46. 


3 1  o  Seed-  Truths. 

in  human  nature  as  leaven  in  meal,  that  'He  might 
redeem  us  from  all  iniquity,  and  purify  unto  Himself  a 
peculiar  people,  zealous  of  good  works.' *  How  could 
the  Father,  how  could  angels,  how  could  the  Son 
Himself,  stave  off  the  crisis,  when  all  were  a  unit  in 
'  the  predetermined  counsel  and  foreknowledge/  that  He 
must  thus  '  by  wicked  hands  be  crucified  and  slain/ 
and  that  the  ruling  flesh  in  man  could  not  otherwise 
be  subdued  to  the  kingdom  of  God?2  And  yet,  because 
neither  the  Father,  nor  angels,  nor  the  Son  Himself 
could  afford  relief,  consistently  with  the  Scriptures  or 
with  the  demands  of  the  occasion,  was  pain  therefore 
the  less  painful  to  the  sufferer  Himself,  or  the  break- 
ing up  of  one  mode  of  existence  in  order  to  enter 
upon  another  less  dreadful  to  every  sensibility  ?  These 
were  the  throes  of  His  human  birth  to  a  higher  life,  and 
'  the  twelve  legions  of  angels '  that  He  might  have  com- 
manded to  His  deliverance  would  only  have  defeated  the 
purpose  of  His  mission;  and  of  course  the  Father's  inter- 
ference was  equally  impossible.  Suffering  has  a  mission 
in  redemption ;  and  well  said  our  Lord,  '  How  am  I 
straitened  till  it  be  accomplished  ! '  This  cry  of  agony, 
'  My  God,  my  God,  why  hast  Thou  forsaken  me  ? '  has 
infinite  appropriateness  to  the  occasion  and  the  Sufferer. 
Is  it  not  strange  that  so  plain  a  case  should  *be 
put  into  the  unnatural  shape  of  an  indignant  Father 
pouring  His  wrath  upon  His  Son ;  that  outraged  law 
should  wreak  its  vengeance  on  His  holy  soul ;  or  that 
the  public  conscience  of  the  universe,  demanding  a 
spectacular  scene  of  blood,  should  have  made  His  death 
an  equivalent  for  hell-torments  ?  Alas  for  theory  and 
philosophy !  How  remote  the  apostolic  account  from 
any  tiling  of  tin-,  kind  !^-every  where  representing  Christ 
1  Til.  ii  14.  '*  Actsii. 


Suffering  as  the  Initiative  of  Power.      3 1 1 

as  'the  Well -beloved,'  'the  only  begotten  Son/  'in 
the  bosom  of  the  Father/  always  an  object  of  His 
'  delight/  and  never  more  so  than  in  this  tragic  act  of 
His  life.1  '  Therefore  doth  my  Father  love  me,  because 
I  lay  down  my  life.'  'For  the  suffering  of  death,  He 
was  crowned  with  glory  .and  honour.' 2  And  Jesus  in 
the  next  breath,  to  His  complaint  of  being  forsaken, 
says,  '  Father,  into  Thy  hands  I  commend  my  spirit.' 
Does  this  look  like  one  labouring  under  a  sense  of 
divine  anger  ?  With  such  a  feeling  of  delight  in  each 
other  at  bottom,  can  we  imagine  the  pantomime  of  an 
acted  scene  of  wrath  ? 

Still,  our  Lord's  sufferings  were  consequent  upon 
sin,  as  the  pain  inflicted  by  the  surgeon's  knife  is  a 
consequence  of  the  disease  of  which  it  is  the  cure. 
He  owed  His  sufferings  to  His  human  relationship,  or 
the  lost  condition  of  the  nature  which  He  had  as- 
sumed,— a  nature  in  which  He  had  done  no  sin ;  and 
therefore  His  immortality  was  ensured  without  dying, 
much  more  than  was  that  of  Enoch  and  Elijah  by 
anything  they  had  done.  He  died,  therefore,  as  He 
Himself  says,  that  His  death  might  become  a  power  of 
regeneration  to  others.  'I  tell  you  the  truth:  it  is 
expedient  that  I  depart  [die] ;  for  if  I  depart  not,  the 
Comforter  will  not  come  to  you ;  but  if  I  go  [die],  I 
will  send  Him  to  you.'3  His  death  did  not  detach 
Him  from  humanity;  so  far  otherwise,  it  wTas  COD 
verting  Himself  into  a  permanent  and  all-pervadin- 
power,  acting  upon  and  in  them  that  believe,  to  raise 
them  from  a  carnal  to  a  spiritual,  from  an  earthly  to  a 

i  Matt.  iii.  17  ;  John  xii.  28  ;  Ps.  ii.  7 ;  Isa.  xlii.  1  ;  Matt.  xii.  18, 
xvii.  5  ;  Mark  i.  11  ;  Luke  ix.  35  ;  Eph.  i.  6  ;  Col.  i.  13  ;  2  Pet.  i.  17  ; 
John  i.  18. 

8  John  x.  17  ;  Heb.  ii  9.  -     3  John  xiv  2,  3,  xvi.  7,  8. 


312  Seed-Truths. 

heavenly  life.  In  this  sense,  on  Him  was  'laid  the 
iniquity  of  us  all ; '  in  this  sense,  '  He  was  wounded 
for  our  transgressions,  He  was  bruised  for  our  iniqui- 
ties:  the  chastisement -of  our  peace  was  upon  Him; 
and  with  His  stripes  we  are  healed.' l 

It  is  in  the  light  of  this  initial  process  to  a  like  ex- 
perience in  us,  of  suffering  as  a  means  of  freedom  from 
sin,  that  the  subject  has  so  great  an  interest  to  a  lost 
race.  The  apostle  so  uses  the  event  when  he  says : 
'  Forasmuch,  then,  as  Christ  has  suffered  for  us  in  the 
flesh,  arm  yourselves  likewise  with  the  same  mind :  for 
lie  that  hath  suffered  in  the  flesh  hath  ceased  from 
sin;  that  he  should  no  longer  live  the  rest  of  the 
time  in  the  flesh  to  the  lusts  of  men,  but  to  the  will  of 
God/ 2  Let  us  therefore  consider  a  few  of  the  cases 
in  which  persons  have  been  'armed  with  the  same 
mind.'  or  in  whom  suffering  has  conduced  to  a  like 
result;  and  note  also  the  intellectual  validity  of  such 
experiences  in  evincing  the  cross  to  be,  not  merely  a 
symbol,  but  a  living  power  among  men. 

Paul's  account  of  this  process  in  himself  includes  his 
Pharisaical  life ;  his  malignity  as  a  persecutor  of  the 
church;  his  journey  to  Damascus,  and  the  mid-day 
splendour  shining  upon  him,  eclipsing  the  sun;  the 
voice  calling  to  him  from  heaven,  and  assigning  his 
mission  ;  the  blindness,  the  fasting,  the  baptism,  the 
renewed  Paul  in  place  of  a  dead  Saul  the  legalist ; 
and,  we  may  add,  his  subsequent  career  in  *  filling  up 
that  which  is  behind  of  the  afflictions  of  Christ  in  his 
flesh,  for  His  body's  sake,  which  is  the  church.'8  Paul 
on  many  occasions  adduces  the  evidence  of  such  an 
experience  in  confirmation  of  the  gospel  he  preached, 

1  Isa.  HiL  6,  6.  »  1  Pet.  iv.  1,  2. 

•  Acts  UL  1-23,  xxii  1-21,  xxvi.  4-23;  1  Tim.  L  18. 


Suffering  as  the  Initiative  of  Power.     3 1 3 

or  to  show  its  power  in  his  own  case.  Before  mobs 
and  kingly  courts  he  stood  forth  as  an  example  of 
resurrection  power,  and  of  the  efficacy  of  atoning  blood. 
His  heart  glowed  with  his  theme,  and  evinced  the  power 
of  experimental  preaching  above  all  other  modes  of 
address. 

Examples  of  like  character,  though  less  signal,  dot 
the  ages  from  Paul  to  this  day ;  and  it  is  hard  to  select 
•where  so  much  is  offered  to  our  choice.  Bunyan  was 
a  tinker,  an  ignorant,  brutal  sort  of  man ;  but  the  new 
life  has  made  his  name  a  household  word  to  the  civi- 
lised world.  After  a  death-struggle  of  some  continu- 
ance, 'he  came  up  with  the  cross,  when  his  burden 
loosed  from  his  shoulders,  and  fell  from  his  back,  and 
began  to  tumble,  and  so  continued  to  do,  till  it  came  to 
the  mouth  of  the  sepulchre,  where  it  fell  in,  and  I  saw 
it  no  more.  Then  was  he  glad  and  lightsome,  and  said 
with  a  merry  heart,  "  He  hath  given  me  rest  by  His 
sorrow,  and  life  by  His  death."  Then  he  stood  still 
awhile  to  look  and  wonder,  for  it  was  very  surprising 
to  him  that  the  sight  of  the  cross  should  thus  ease  him 
of  his  burden/  Here  the  cross  and  sepulchre  are  cause 
operating  to  the  believing  soul  in  producing  death  to 
sin  and  life  to  righteousness :  Christ's  experience  is 
cause,  the  soul's  experience  is  effect ;  the  two  corre- 
sponding to  each  o'ther  as  light  to  the  eye  in  producing 
seeing.  Andrew  Fuller,  not  as  the  great  theologian, 
but  as  an  untaught  farmer  boy,  says  of  his  experience, 
then  and  there :  '  I  was  like  a  man  drowning,  looking 
every  way  for  help,  or  rather  catching  for  something 
by  which  he  might  save  his  life.'  It  is  hard  for  flesh  to 
give  up  to  die.  After  floundering  among  false  doctrines 
about  a  Christ  only  for  the  elect,  he  adds :  '  I  felt  some- 
thing attractive  in  the  Saviour.  I  must — I  will — yes, 


314  Seed-Truths. 

I  will  trust  my  sinful  soul  in  His  hands.  And  as  the 
eye  of  the  mind  was  more  and  more  fixed  upon  Him, 
my  guilt  and  fears  were  gradually  but  insensibly  re- 
moved. I  now  found  rest  for  my  soul ;  and  I  reckon 
that  I  should  have  found  it  sooner,  if  I  had  not  enter- 
tained the  notion  of  having  no  warrant  to  come  to 
Christ  without  some  previous  qualification.'  The  in- 
carnation annihilates  the  distance  between  us  and  God ; 
and  the  blood  of  the  cross  is  a  positive  efficiency  to 
bring  the  consenting,  believing  soul  nigh,  however  far 
off  he  may  have  been  before.  The  atoning  efficacy  and 
the  will  to  trust  are  both  parts  of  the  same  perfect 
whole. 

The  general  character  of  this  class  of  inward  experi- 
ences is  thus  beautifully  expressed  by  Cowper: 

*I  was  a  stricken  deer  that  left  the  herd 
Long  since.     With  many  an  arrow  deep  infix'd 
My  panting  side  was  charged,  when  I  withdrew 
To  seek  a  tranquil  death  in  distant  shades. 
There  was  I  found  by  one  who  had  Himself 
Been  hurt  by  the  archers.     In  His  side  he  bore^ 
And  in  His  hands  and  feet,  the  cruel  scars. 
"With  gentle  force  soliciting  the  darts, 
He  drew  them  forth,  and  healed,  and  bade  me  live.* 

It  must  be  obvious  to  an  impartial  observer,  that 
such  psychological  facts,  of  which  the  record  is  illimit- 
able, do  not  occur  except  in  connection  with  the  cross ; 
showing  that  Jesus,  in  consenting  to  die,  is  not  dis- 
appointed in  His  purpose  of  commuting  His  life  into 
a  permanent  spiritual  power,  acting  as  leaven  in  meal 
among  our  human  elements.  The  Holy  Spirit  is  this 
power  proceeding  from  Him ;  and  by  working  in  us 
mightily,  He  exerts  over  the  whole  area  of  our  earthly 
affairs  a  directing  and  a  sanctifying  influence.  Our 
bodies  thus  become  a  living  sacrifice,  holy  arid  accept- 


Suffering  as  the  Initiative  of  Power.     315 

able,  being  quickened  to  something  better  than  a  merely 
carnal  life  by  His  indwelling  Spirit ;  and  our  eating, 
and  drinking,  and  lowest  activities,  reflect  the  divine 
glory  shining  in  and  through  us.1  That  Christ's  death 
has  thus  proved  the  emanating  source  of  a  power  work- 
ing outwardly  as  well  as  inwardly,  shaping  the  currents 
of  human  thought,  moulding  institutions,  directing  the 
outlay  of  enterprise  and  wealth,  supplying  material  for 
art,  science,  and  literature,  and  producing  an  extensive 
impression  upon  human  affairs,  who  can  deny  ?  And 
who  can  deny  that  it  has  done  this  by  means  that  in 
their  inception  were,  humanly  speaking,  wholly  inade- 
quate to  such  results  ?  The  words,  '  I  am  Jesus,  whom 
tliou  persecutest,'  thrilling  upon  the  soul  of  Paul,  and 
'  the  just  shall  live  by  faith/  vibrating  upon  every  chord 
of  thought  and  feeling  in  Luther,  laid  a  foundation,  the 
first  for  changing  the  religion  of  Rome  from  Paganism 
to  Christianity,  and  the  other  for  detaching  a  third 
part  of  the  nations  from  a  dominant  apostasy,  arousing 
thought  and  enterprise  in  all  departments,  and  lead- 
ing on  to  a  train  of  consequences  infinite  and  eternal. 
What  a  potency  in  single  seed-truths  falling  from  the 
tree  of  life  as  represented  by  the  cross ! 

It  is  no  abstraction  of  penal  law,  no  intellectual 
conviction,  no  spectacular  scene  of  punishment  to 
pacify  a  universal  conscience  demanding  a  victim  as 
an  offset  to  hell-torments ;  no,  it  is  power  as  really  as 
gravitation  is  power,  though,  as  pertaining  to  God,  the 
soul,  and  eternity,  it  is  of  infinitely  greater  significance. 
The  divinity  becomes  identified  with  humanity  in  a 
far  higher  sense  than  the  inbreathing  into  man  at  his 
creation,  giving  him  power  to  become  a  redeemed  son 
of  God.  There  is  nothing  in  a  peasant's  daughter  to 
1  Rom.  viii.  11,  xii.  1;  1  Cor.  x.  31. 


3 1 6  Seed-  Truths. 

suggest  the  impossible  hope  that  she  may  be  married 
to  a  prince;  but  if  she  were  to  see  the  prince 'coming 
down  from  his  throne  and  his  palace  to  woo  her,  sacri- 
ficing his  royalty  for  her  menial  condition,  exchanging 
his  robes  for  her  rags,  and  his  dainties  for  her  crumbs, 
then  a  new-born  hope  within  her  might  aspire  to  being 
his  wife.  And  when  married  to  him  in  his  rags,  she 
might  then  aspire  to  a  throne  and  a  diadem,  as  he  should 
resume  these  prerogatives  of  his  birth.  Such  is  the 
incarnation  and  the  cross  in  human  history.  '  If  so  be 
that  we  suffer  with  Him,  that  we  may  be  also  glorified 
together/  Having  followed  Him  in  His  regeneration 
of  blood,  and  in  His  spiritual  baptism,  how  can  we 
doubt  that  we  shall  reign  with  Him  I1 

In  all  cases  wherein  such  a  hope  takes  its  rise,  it  is 
from  a  like  crisis  of  abandonment  to  pain  and  woe 
with  that  which  extorted  the  cry,  '  My  God,  my  God, 
why  hast  Thou  forsaken  me  ?'  The  baritone  song  of  a 
dying  flesh  has  in  this  cry  its  keynote.  In  the  three 
thousand  pentecostal  converts  it  was,  '  Men  and  bre- 
thren, what  shall  we  do  ?'  In  the  Pliilippian  jailor, 
'  Sirs,  what  must  I  do  to  be  saved  ?'  In  Saul  of  Tarsus, 
'  0  wretched  man  that  I  am,  who  shall  deliver  me  from 
the  body  of  this  death  ? '  It  is  the  cry  of  a  sense  of 
total  abandonment  to  pain  and  woe,  in  Christ  working 
out  salvation  for  us ;  but  of  sinking  to  hell  in  us,  as 
we  feel  we  richly  deserve.  It  is  like  the  throes  of  the 
convict  ending  in  the  stillness  of  death  under  the  exe- 
cutioner's axe :  with  this  difference,  that  the  blow  is 
stayed,  as  Abraham's  was  in  beheading  his  son ;  and  we 
fall  into  the  arms  of  infinite  love, '  forgiving  all  our 
iniquities,  healing  all  our  diseases,  redeeming  our  life 
from  destruction,  crowning  us  with  loving-kindness  and 

1  Rom.  viii.  17. 


Suffering  as  the  Initiative  of  Power.     3 1 7 

tender  mercies,  satisfying  our  mouth  with  good  things, 
so  that  our  youth  is  renewed  like  the  eagle's.'  Thus 
Christ,  our  forerunner,  sunk  into  death  and  the  grave, 
but  was  caught  in  the  arms  of  a  resurrection  and  glori- 
fication power,  to  be  henceforth  the  cause  of  a  like 
transition  in  us.  His  experience  is  reflected  in  ours, 
as  the  central  figure  of  a  grand  saloon  repeats  itself  in 
the  mirrors  by  which  it  is  surrounded. 

This  law  of  suffering  as  cause  may  be  traced  to 
everything  of  value  among  men.  Is  not  our  very 
earthly  being  itself  a  product  of  suffering  ?  Did  not 
that  quiet  man  Newton  work  out  his  problems  of  the 
universe  by  many  a  throe  of  agony  ?  Was  not  the 
steamboat  set  adrift,  and  the  locomotive  launched  upon 
its  iron  track,  by  a  generation  •  or  two  of  agonized 
endeavour  ?  This  is  the  law  in  everything.  Who 
looks  for  offshoots  of  beneficence  from  dilettante,  plea- 
sure-loving minds  ?  Suffering  in  the  inauguration  of 
spiritual  power  is  no  isolated  fact  of  human  experience. 

But  the  question  is,  What  value  is  to  be  attached  to 
Christian  experience,  so  called,  as  evidence  of  anything 
divine  or  extraordinary  in  the  doctrine  of  the  cross  ? 
What  is  it  worth,  as  tried  by  the  ordinary  tests  of 
evidence  and  of  truth  ?  I  am  aware  that  there  is  much 
talk  of  fanaticism,  mental  disease,  and  of  dreamy  fancies, 
as  accounting  for  all  this  class  of  psychological  develop- 
ment. Even  the  religion  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton  was 
sneered  at  by  Voltaire  as  the  offshoot  of  a  diseased 
mind.  But  there  are  certain  principles  on  this  subject 
that  cannot  be  well  disputed. 

First,  the  agreement  of  such  an  experience  with  our 
moral  nature  is  worthy  to  be  thought  of.  If  a  man  had 
been  confined  all  his  life  from  the  approach  of  light,  and 
should  suddenly  be  introduced  to  the  opening  expanse 


3i3  Seed-Truths. 

of  the  dawning  morning,  could  he  doubt  the  validity  of 
his  sensations  and  experiences  in  becoming  familiarized 
to  the  new  element  ?  Its  agreement  with  his  eyes 
leaves  not  a  doubt  in  his  mind  of  their  being  made  for 
each  other.  No  evidence  beyond  his  own  sensations 
would  be  needed  to  complete  the  demonstration,  nor 
would  the  sneers  of  the  blind  at  his  fanaticism  unsettle 
his  convictions.  He  knows  that,  whereas  he  was  once 
blind,  now  he  sees.1 

So  we  are,  by  reason  of  sin,  in  the  darkness  of  a 
natural  material  sort  of  life,  and  the  truths  and  beati- 
tudes of  our  relation  to  God  and  a  spirit-realm  are  hid 
from  us.  Still  our  instinctive  longings  after  immor- 
tality, our  undefined  and  unsatisfied  feeling  of  connec- 
tion with  something  higher  than  this  earthly  world, 
remain,  like  the  tendency  to  seeing  in  eyes  excluded 
from  light,  or  like  the  craving  of  infant  appetite  for 
untasted  food.  Conscience  spurs  us  up  to  a  virtue  to 
which  we  have  not  yet  attained,  and  after  which  wo 
grasp,  without  being  able  to  reach  it.  Like  men  in 
total  darkness,  we  feel  that  we  are  made  for  something 
better,  and  are  burdened  and  heavy  laden  from  a  sense 
of  incapacity  to  assume  our  proper  position.  This  con- 
dition of  human  nature  is  the  necessary  result  of  being 
cut  off  from  its  higher  relations ;  just  as  plants  without 
sunlight  have  only  a  feeble,  diseased,  and  unproductive 
life.  Did  the  old  heathen  symbolize  this  state  by  the 
vultures  gnawing  at  the  vitals  of  Prometheus  ?. 

IJut  in  a  genuine  Christian  experience  the  needed 
light  is  admitted ;  the  inward  torture  is  relaxed ;  the 
Licking  power  of  reaching  one  conscience-ideal  is  sup- 
plied in  the  righteousness  of  the  law  fulfilled  in  us ; 
and  an  undefined  sense  of  satisfaction  diffuses  itself, 
i  John  ix.  25. 


Suffering  as  the  Initiative  of  Power.     319 

like  a  gentle  heat  or  a  sweet  soft  radiance,  through  out 
whole  being.  We  feel  that  all  is  right  with  us,  and 
we  are  as  sure  that  our  hearts  do  not  deceive  us,  as  the 
blind  of  the  verity  of  their  sensations  on  first  seeing. 
Peace  and  joy  reign  within,  and,  if  withdrawn,  duty 
remains ;  God  remains ;  love  remains  in  its  practical 
working,  if  not  in  its  sensational  delights ;  and  our 
energies  are  taxed  in  a  perpetual  race  of  glory  to  God 
in  the  highest,  and  good-will  to  men,  and  in  the  un- 
ceasing battle  of  overcoming  evil  with  good.  Nothing 
short  of  this  comes  up  to  the  Bible  ideal  of  a  new  man 
in  Christ. 

Second,  Christian  experience,  so  far  as  it  is  genuine 
and  effective,  leads  to  right  living.  It  makes  the  con- 
tentious peaceable,  the  intemperate  temperate,  the  pro- 
fane devout,  the  dishonest  honest,  the  licentious  chaste, 
and  the  riotous  useful  and  orderly  citizens.  Such  is 
its  tendency,  however  counteracted,  or  however  defec- 
tive in  the  spurious  examples  of  it  sometimes  brought. 
to  our  notice.  Peter's  love  of  his  Master,  though 
undying,  had  its  intermissions,  costing  him  tears  and 
poignant  regrets.  As  animal  life  is  still  life,  though  in 
conflict  with  disease  and  its  causes,  so  the  restored 
divinity  of  our  souls  is  beleaguered,  and  victory  may 
sometimes  waver  all  along  the  line  of  battle.  To  esti- 
mate what  grace  actually  achieves,  we  must  take  into 
account  what  its  subjects  would  have  been  without  its 
restraining  influence.  Is  it  nothing  that  the  soul,  even 
in  its  failures,  is  held  to  a  divine,  a  superhuman  ideal 
of  moral  excellence  ? 

The  general  as  well  as  the  specific  results  must  also 
be  considered  in  estimating  Christian  experience.  Think 
of  its  martyr-subjects,  whose  blood  is  the  seeding  of 
Christianity  in  the  earth.  Think  of  the  Puritan  stock; 


3  2  o  Seed-  Truths. 

hardy,  resolute,  freedom-loving,  unwisely  mixing  piety 
and  politics,  ready  always  for  a  tilt  with  the  enemies  of 
God,  and  quite  unlovely  in  many  of  their  features ;  but 
still  baptized  in 

'  Siloa's  "brook,  that  flowed 
Fast  by  the  oracle  of  God, ' 

and  wielding  spiritual  truths  and  the  temporal  sword 
in  a  way  beneficent  to  British  institutions  and  to 
general  liberty.  We  do  not  claim  to  estimate  the  good 
or  ill  of  Puritanism  in  Europe ;  but  we  are  certain  that 
the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  despite  their  faults,  have  done  a 
great  work  in  America.  It  was  their  new  life  in  God 
that  embarked  them  in  the  enterprise  of  planting  their 
religion  amid  nature's  wilds  and  among  savage  men ; 
that  founded  their  churches  and  free  schools,  now  the 
pride  and  glory  of  forty  million  people ;  and  laid  the 
foundation  of  an  empire  so  far  in  advance  of  the  older 
Catholic  colonies  of  Mexico  and  South  America.  They 
had  to  do  with  the  infinite  and  the  eternal  directly 
and  in  their  own  persons,  and  not  through  priestly 
intermediation ;  and  this  of  itself  was  a  power  fitting 
them  to  distance  their  more  servile  neighbours.  This 
Puritan  seeding  in  the  New  World  is,  what  the  Eoman 
stock  was  among  the  tribes  of  ancient  Italy,  the  assimi- 
lating force  which  is  melting  the  country  so  largely 
into  its  own  type  of  politics  and  religion,  and  impart- 
ing its  own  energy  into  all  the  departments  of  business. 
The  use  of  the  word  Yankee,  once  applied  as  a  term  of 
reproach  to  a  limited  section,  but  now  as  a  designation 
for  two-thirds  of  the  nation,  shows  clearly  the  progres- 
sive character  of  the  stock  to  whom  it  properly  belongs. 
That  religion  as  a  heart-work  was  the  leading  idea  with 
the  Puritans  is  conceded  ;  and  whatever  may  be  thought 
of  their  influence  as  a  whole,  no  one  can  look  at  English. 


Suffering  as  the  Initiative  of  Power.     321 

history,  or  witness  their  achievements  in  America,  with- 
out confessing  that  they  have  been  a  power  in  the  earth. 
With  far  less  advantages  for  action  and  demonstration 
than  other  classes  of  religionists,  they  have  really 
achieved  more  than  any  of  them. 

How  can  we  doubt  the  validity  of  the  new  life  in 
God,  to  which  at  least  much  of  this  history  is  owing  ? 
A  restored  Bible ;  a  revived  literature ;  imiversal  edu- 
cation; communion  with  God,  as  the  privilege  of  our 
daily  conscious  life  ;  the  power  of  prayer  ;  a  state  with- 
out a  king,  and  a  church  without  a  bishop ;  the  laws 
supreme  over  palace  and  cottage ; — these  are  some  of 
the  doings  and  designings  of  this  Puritan  contact  of 
earth  with  heaven.  Even  in  the  Papal  Church,  the 
Pascals,  the  Fenelons,  the  Bossuets,  the  Bourdaloues, 
and  men  most  in  sympathy  with  piety  as  an  inner  life, 
have  shed  around  them  the  most  genial  influence,  and 
have  done  most  to  bless  the  world.  If  a  tree  is  to  be 
judged  by  its  fruit,  what  better  one  can  be  found  than 
this  ?  Call  it  a  dream,  a  vision,  fanaticism,  bigotry,  or 
by  any  other  hard  name ;  still  neither  the  power  nor 
the  beneficence  of  Christian  experience  can  thus  be 
scorned  out  of  existence. 

Third,  another  fact  to  be  considered  in  evidence  of 
the  genuineness  of  Christian  experience,  is  the  power 
it  gives  over  the  conscience.  Men  may  be  deceived 
in  their  reasoning,  but  they  are  not  likely  to  be  as  to 
what  is  adapted  to  move  their  instinctive  feelings. 
Does  not  a  mother  know  what  is  suited  to  move  her 
maternal  sympathies  ?  Does  not  stage  acting  assume 
that  the  passions  have  their  appropriate  language  and 
gestures,  and  that  when  these  are  used  they  are  sure 
of  a  response  from  a  listening  audience  ?  The  picture 
of  a  Fioman  daughter  who  for  six  weeks  sustained  the 

X 


322  Seed-  Truths. 

life  of  her  father,  condemned  to  die  of  starvation,  by 
stealing  into  his  prison  and  feeding  him  with  the  food 
that  nature  provided  for  her  infant,  will  make  its  im- 
pression even  upon  disobedient  children, — so  sure  is  an 
action  of  the  kind  to  meet  a  response  from  the  inner 
chords  of  our  being. 

But  what  has  proved  a  greater  power,  as  before 
hinted,  than  experimental  preaching  ?  When  an 
apostle's  life  hung  upon  his  speech,  as  before  the 
mob  at  Jerusalem  and  the  court  of  Agrippa  at  Caesarea, 
he  did  not  trust  to  the  elaborations  of  his  intellect,  but 
to  the  simple  rehearsal  of  what  God  had  done  for  his 
soul.  And  Gibbon  concedes  the  mighty  influence 
which  the  Christian  pulpit  had  upon  the  destinies  of 
the  Roman  world.  Fervid  men  giving  utterance  in 
ten  thousand  pulpits,  once,  twice,  or  thrice  a  week,  of 
their  own  vital  experiences  on  subjects  most  momen- 
tous, could  not  fail  to  affect  the  currents  of  thought 
and  feeling  in  a  great  empire.  How  prodigious  the 
effect  of  Whitfield's  ministrations  on  a  London  mob, 
and  upon  all  classes,  not  from  the  strength  of  his 
reasoning,  in  which  he  never  excelled,  but  from  the 
tide  of  genuine  feeling  which  he  poured  over  his 
audiences !  Speech  in  such  cases  gives  vent  to  infinite 
and  eternal  realities,  swaying  minds  as  the  tempest 
the  reeds  that  grow  in  its  track.  An  argumentative, 
unsentimental  discourse  has  no  such  effect,  because  it 
appeals  to  very  different  principles  of  human  nature. 
The  one  is  an  assault  upon  the  reason,  the  other  upon 
the  conscience. 

Is  there  not  genuine  nature  and  reality,  therefore,  in 
an  influence  which  has  proved  itself  such  a  power  to 
conscience  for  so  many  ages,  and  to  men  so  diversified 
in  condition  and  culture  ?  The  brutalized  savages  of 


Suffering  as  the  Initiative  of  Power.     323 

an  American  forest  felt  the  burning  words  of  Brainerd, 
and  were  quite  as  demonstrative  under  his  appeals 
as  Peter's  audience  on  Pentecost,  as  Whitfield's  in 
London  or  Bristol,  or  as  Massillon's  and  Bourdaloue's 
among  the  dite  of  Paris.  A  soul  kindled  at  God's 
altars  has  always  been,  and  always  will  be,  a  power  in 
the  earth.  The  chords  of  the  harp  give  no  surer  re- 
sponse to  the  touch,  than  the  soul  of  man  to  the  divine 
word  spoken  in  power  by  one  who  comes  to  testify 
what  he  has  seen  with  his  eyes,  what  he  has  heard, 
what  he  has  looked  upon,  and  what  his  hands  have 
handled  of  the  Word  of  Life.1  No  sham  can  succeed 
in  such  a  work,  no  mimicry  of  another's  acting,  no 
intonations  assumed  for  the  sake  of  effect,  no  attitu- 
dinizing to  impress  the  senses :  nothing  but  genuine 
Christian  experience,  not  of  a  former  date  or  as  a  past 
memory,  but  as  a  living,  glowing  reality,  to  modulate 
the  voice  and  infuse  sincerity  into  every  gesture  at  the 
moment  of  speaking,  can  ever  meet  the  demands  of 
the  ministerial  calling.  Where  this  is,  silence  is  power, 
and  a  look  eloquence.  '  It  is  not  ye  that  speak,  but 
the  Spirit  of  my  Father  that  speaketh  in  you,' 8 
»lJoimil.  "Matt.  x.  20. 


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DR.  WAYLAND'S  WORKS. 

3*rinciples  and  ^Practices  of  Baptists.      By 

FRANCIS  WAYLAND,  D.D.    1  vol.,  12mo.,  cloth.    Price, 
$1.50. 

"  We  hope  the  book  will  find  its  way  into  every  family  in 
every  Baptist  church  in  the  land,  and  should  be  glad  to  know 
it  was  generally  circulated  in  the  families  of  other  churches." 

Christian  Chronicle. 

&  Memoir  of  the  Z,ife  and  labors  of  the 
3tev.  Adoniram  Judson,  3).  2).  By  FRAN- 
CIS WAYLAND,  D.D.  Illustrated  with  a  fine  Portrait 
of  Dr.  Judson.  Two  vols.  in  one,  12mo.  Price,  $2.50. 

The   dements  of  Intellectual   ^Philosophy. 

By  FRANCIS  WAYLAND,  D.D.    One  vol.,  12mo.    Price, 
$1.75. 

Sermons  to  t?ie  Chtirches.  By  FRANCIS  WAYLAND, 
D.D.  One  vol.,  12mo.  Price,  $1.00. 

"  Dr.  Wnyland  is  a  clear  thinker,  and  a  strong  and  elegant 
writer.  PI  is  Sermons  are  models  worthy  of  study." — Chri* 
tian  Intelligencer. 


SHELDON   &  COMPANY'S 


Watting  for  the  Verdict.  By  Mrs.  REBECCA  HARDING 
DAVIS,  author  of  "Margaret  Howth,"  "Life  Among 
the  Iron  Mills,"  &c.,  &c.  One  vol.,  octavo,  illus- 
trated, bound  in  cloth.  Price,  $2.00. 

This  is  a  story  of  unusual  power  and  thrilling  interest. 

"  It  is  not  only  the  most  elaborate  work  of  its  author,  bat 
it  is  one  of  the  most  powerful  works  of  fiction  by  any  Ameri- 
can writer."  —  New  York  Times. 


The  Zife  and  betters  of  2tev.  Geo. 

thune,  2).  2).  By  Rev.  ABRAHAM  R.  VAN  NEST, 
D.D.  One  vol.,  large  12mo.,  illustrated  by  an  elegant 
steel-plate  Likeness  of  Dr.  Bethune.  Price,  $2.00. 

This  is  one  of  the  most  charming  biographies  ever  written. 
As  a  genial  and  jovial  friend,  as  an  enthusiastic  sportsman, 
as  a  thorough  theologian,  as  one  of  the  most  eloquent  and 
gifted  divines  of  his  day,  Dr.  Bethune  took  a  firm  hold  of  the 
hearts  of  all  with  whom  he  came  in  contact. 


.  Bethune's  27ieotogry,  or  EXPOSITORY  LECTURES 
ON  THE  HEIDELBERG  CATECHISM.  By  GEO.  W.  BETHUNE, 
D.D.  Two  vols.,  crown  octavo  (Riverside  edition), 
on  tinted  paper.  Price,  cloth,  $4.50;  half  oalf,  or 
morocco,  extra,  $8.50. 

This  was  the  great  life  work  of  the  late  Dr.  Bethune,  and 
will  remain  a  monument  of  his  thorough  scholarship,  the 
classical  purity  and  beauty  of  his  style,  and  above  all,  hia 
deep  and  abiding  piety. 

"  When  the  Rev.  Dr.  Bethune,  whose  memory  is  yet  green 
and  fragrant  in  the  Church,  was  about  to  leave  this  country, 
he  committed  his  manuscripts  to  a  few  friends,  giving  thorn 
discretionary  power  with  regard  to  their  publication.  Among 
them  was  the  #reat  work  of  his  life  ;  in  his  opinion  the  work, 
and  that  from  which  he  hoped  the  most  usefulness  while  he 
lived,  and  after  he  was  dead,  if  it  should  thon  b«  given  to 
tlir-  T.jvsa.  TM«  v.'ork  WHS  his  roursn  of  l^'-tuns  on  the 
Catechism  of  tli«-  Hiim-h  in  wJiio'i  he  was  a  burning  and 
•hinfng  light.  —  Nnr  York  Observer. 


STANDARD   AND   MISCELLANEOUS   BOOKS. 

Neander's  ^Planting  and  Training  of  the 
Christian  Cfturc/i  by  the  Apostles.  Trans- 
lated from  tbe  German  by  J.  E.  RY.LAND.  Trans- 
lation revised  and  corrected  according  to  the  fourth 
German  edition.  By  E.  G.  ROBINSON,  D.D.,  Pro- 
fessor in  the  Rochester  Theological  Seminary.  One 
yol.,  octavo,  cloth.  Price,  $4.00. 

"The  patient  scholarship,  the  critical  sagacity,  and  tho 
simple  and  unaffected  piety  of  the  author,  are  manifest 
throughout.  Such  a  history  should  find  a  place  in  the  library 
of  every  one  who  seeks  a  familiar  knowledge  of  the  early 
shaping  of  the  Christian  Churches.  An  excellent  index  addi 
to  its  value." — Evangelist. 

Illustrations.  Being  a,  Store-house  of  Simi- 
lies,  Allegories,  and  Anecdotes — with  an  introduc- 
tion by  RICHARD  NEWTON,  D.D.  One  vol.,  12mo. 
Price,  $1.50.  Every  Sabbath  School  teacher  should 
have  this  book. 

"  It  is  impossible  not  to  commend  a  book  like  this." — Ed- 
itor of  Encyc.  of  Religious  Knowledge. 

"  We  think  that  Sabbath  School  teachers  especially  would 
bo  profited  by  reading  it ;  and  many  of  the  anecdotes  will 
lielp  to  point  the  arrow  of  the  preacher." — Christian  Herald. 


SPURGEON'S  WORKS. 

Sermons  of  the  ffier.  C.  If.  Spurgton,  of  Lon- 
don, in  uniform  styles  of  binding. 

First  Series.  With  an  Introduction  and  Sketch  of  his  Life,  by 
the  Rev.  E.  L.  MA  GOON,  D.D.  With  a  fine  steel-plate  Por- 
trait. One  vol.,  12mo.,  pp.  400.  Price,  $1.50. 

Second  Series.  Revised  by  the  Author,  and  published  with 
his  sanction.  Containing  a  new  steel-plate  Portrait,  engraved 
expressly  for  the  volume.  Price,  $1.50. 

Tliird  Series.  Revised  by  the  Author,  and  published  with  his 
sanction.  Containing  a  steel-plate  view  of  Surrey  Music 
Hall,  London,  engraved  expressly  for  the  volume.  Price,  $1.50. 


SHELDON    &   COMPANY'S 


The  Life  and  betters  of  Mrs.  Emily  C. 
Judson  (Fanny  Forrester),  third  wife  of  the 
Rev.  Adoniram  Judson,  D.D.,  Missionary  to  Bur- 
mah.  By  A.  C.  KEXDRICK,  Professor  of  Greek  in 
the  University  of  Rochester.  With  a  steel-plate 
Portrait  of  Mrs.  Judson.  One  vol.,  12mo.  Price, 
$1.75. 

The  Sexton9 s  Tale,  and  other  iPoems.  By  THEO- 
DORE TILTON,  Editor  of  the  New  York  Independent. 
Illustrated  by  an  ornamental  title-page  and  elegant 
tail-pieces  for  each  Poem,  printed  on  tinted  paper, 
and  bound  with  beveled  boards  and  fancy  cloth. 
One  vol.,  16mo.  Price,  $1.50. 

This  is  the  first  collected  edition  of  Mr.  Tilton's  poems, 
many  of  them  as  sweet  as  any  thing  in  our  language. 

The  Autobiography  of  Elder  Jacob  ICnapp, 

the  great  Revivalist.     One  vol.,  large  12mo.,  with 
steel-plate  Likeness  of  the  Author.     Price,  $2.00 

In  this  book  the  author  gives  an  account  of  the  many  won 
derful  scenes  through  which  he  has  passed,  more  interesting 
and  remarkable  than  any  tales  of  fiction. 

A  new  Enlarged  Edition  of  Mrs.  ^Putnam's 
Receipt  jBoofc,  AND  YOUNG  HOUSEKEEPER'S  ASSIST- 
ANT. A  chapter  on  Carving  has  been  added,  and  a 
very  large  number  of  new  receipts,  with  special 
reference  to  economy  in  cooking.  One  vol.,  12mo. 
Price,  $1.50. 

A  Complete  Manual  of  English  literature. 

By  THOMAS  B.  SHAW,  Author  of  "Shaw's  Outlines 
of  English  Literature."  Edited,  with  Notes  and 
Illustrations,  by  WILLIAM  SMITH,  LL.D.,  author  of 
"  Smith's  Bible  and  Classical  Dictionaries,"  with  a 
Sketch  of  American  Literature,  by  HENRY  T.  TUCK- 
EBMAN.  One  vol.,  largo  12mo.  Price,  $2.00. 


STANDARD  AND   MISCELLANEOUS   BOOKS. 

£ife  of  George  Washington .  By  EDWARD  EVEBETT, 
LL.D.  With  a  steel-plate  Likeness  of  Mr.  Everett, 
from  the  celebrated  bust  by  Hiram  Powers.  One 
vol.,  12mo.,  pp.  318.  Price,  cloth,  $1.50. 

"The  biography  is  a  model  of  condensation,  and,  by  its 
rapid  narrative  and  attractive  style,  must  commend  itself  to 
the  mass  of  readers  as  the  standard  popular  Life  of  Wash- 
ington."— Correspondence  of  the  Boston  Pout. 

The  Science  of  Government,  in  connection 
with  American  Institutions.  By  JOSEPH  AL- 
DEN,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  President  of  State  Normal  School, 
Albany.  One  vol.,  12mo.  Price,  $1.50.  Adapted 
to  the  wants  of  High  Schools  and  Colleges. 

&2den>  s  Citizen' s  Manual.  A  Text-Book  on  Gov* 
ernment  in  connection  with  American  Institutions, 
adapted  to  the  wants  of  Common  Schools.  It  is  in 
the  form  of  questions  and  answers.  By  JOSEPH 
ALDEN,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  President  of  State  Normal 
School,  Albany.  In  one  vol.,  16mo.  Price,  50  cts. 
"  There  is  no  more  important  secular  study  than  the  study 
of  the  institutions  of  our  own  country  ;  and  there  is  no  book 
on  the  subject  so  clear,  comprehensive,  and  complete  in  itself 
as  the  volume  before  us." — New  York  Independent. 

M~acau2a/y's  Assays.  The  Critical,  Historical,  and 
Miscellaneous  Essays  of  the  Eight  Hon.  THOMAS 
BABINGTON  MACAULAY,  with  an  Introduction  and  Bio- 
graphical Sketch  of  the  Author,  by  E.  P.  WHIPPLE, 
and  containing  a  new  steel-plate  Likeness  of  Mac- 
aulay,  and  a  complete  index.  Six  vols.,  crown 
octavo.  Price,  on  tinted  paper,  extra  cloth,  $13.50; 
on  tinted  paper,  half  calf  or  morocco,  $27.00. 

Stierman's  March  through  the  South.     With 

Sketches  and  Incidents  of  the  Campaign.    By  Capt. 

DAVID  P.  CONYNGHAM.     12mo.,  cloth.     Price,  HI. 75. 

"  It  is  the  only  one  that  is  pntiNrjrl  to  crodit  for  real  ability, 

truth,  and  fairness.''—/.  W.  Geary,  Maj.-Gen.  U.  8.  A. 


SHELDON   &.   COMPANY'S 


Lieutenant-  General  Winfield  Scott's  Autobi- 
ography. Two  vols.,  12mo.,  illustrated  with  two 
steel-plate  Likenesses  of  the  General.  Price,  per 
set,  in  cloth,  $4.00;  half  calf,  $8.00.  An  elegant 
"large  paper"  edition  of  this  valuable  book,  on 
tinted  paper,  price  $10.00;  half  calf,  or  morocco, 

$12.50: 

Milman's  Z,atin  Cfiristianity .  History  of  Latin 
Christianity,  including  that  of  the  Popes  to  the  pon- 
tificate of  Nicolas  V.  By  HENRY  HAET  MILMAN,  D.D., 
Dean  of  St.  Paul's.  Eight  vols.,  crown  octavo. 
Price,  extra  cloth,  $20.00. 

"  In  beauty  and  brilliancy  of  style  he  excels  Hallam,  ap- 
preaches  Gibbon,  and  is  only  surpassed  by  the  unrivaled 
Macaulay." — Mercersburg  Review. 

Fleming's  Vocabulary  of  2>hilosop?iy .  With 
Additions  by  CHARLES  P.  KRAUTH,  D.D.  Small  8vo. 
Price,  $2.50. 

"To  students  of  mental  science  this  book  is  invaluable 
Dr.  K.  has  done  good  service  by  the  additions  to  the  work  of 
Dr.  Fleming,  and  the  whole  volume  is  one  which  will  be 
eagerly  sought  and  cordially  appreciated." — Evangelical  Quar- 
terly. 

pony's  Classical  Atlas.  Constructed  by  WM. 
HUGHES  and  edited  by  GEORGE  LONG,  with  a  Sketch 
of  Classical  Geography.  With  fifty-two  Maps,  and 
an  Index  of  Places. 

This  Atlas  will  be  an  invaluable  aid  to  the  stu- 
dent of  Ancient  History,  as  well  as  the  Bible  stu- 
dent. One  vol.,  quarto.  Price,  $4.50. 

"Now  that  we  are  so  well  supplied  with  classical  diction- 
aries, it  is  highly  durable  that  we  should  have  an  atlas 
worthy  to  nccompnnv  them.  In  tho  volume  before  us  is  to 
be  found  all  that  can  be  desired."—  London  Atfanceun. 


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